


Time to pay, Jim Gordon.

by traumaesistenziale



Series: Life Begins Anew [4]
Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Adopted Children, Adult Martin, Death Threats, Dubious Science, Established Oswald Cobblepot/Edward Nygma, Established Relationship, F/M, Fights, Hypnotism, Kidnapping, Lies, M/M, Manipulation, Married Couple, Post-Canon, Post-Finale, Post-Season/Series 05, Revenge, Revenge schemes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-05 13:19:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18829477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/traumaesistenziale/pseuds/traumaesistenziale
Summary: Martin is an adult man now, and along with his two fathers, Oswald and Edward, he seeks only one thing: revenge against the man who made their lives hell and kept them separated for ten years... Jim Gordon."The more he thought about it, the more all of this begun to feel more like a riddle.There was his answer.The jail break of the gangs, the bank robbery, the threat... only now Jim remembered about that. With everything that happened, he had almost forgotten about a threat to his life – that's how wild his life had gotten, by the way. What was that it said? Beware of a storm, or something? Jim remembered it was raining cats and dogs that night, the night Lee got kidnapped.Of course. It had been before his eyes all along, the Riddler was behind this.If that were true, then... had it been really a coincidence that Martin, of all people, would be there on that night?"Post-canon, follow-up to my previous story in this series (all you really need to know is Oswald and Ed got married and adopted Martin, except Jim sent them to jail and separated their family, until they got reunited 10 years later).





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> The last fanfic i wrote in this series left me missing something. I talked a lot about revenge, but there wasn't really any revenge in that one, and Jim had this one coming, so here it is now.
> 
> I'll let you know that i put actual thought into this and tried to make it the smartest plan i could come up with, but I'm not as clever as the characters i'm trying to write, so i did my best. Only thing i can say is: if you think in this one "revenge" just means "i'm gonna kill your family", you are wrong. There's a lot going on here.
> 
> This turned out a lot more Jim-centric and Martin-centric than i initially thought, but in retrospect it makes sense. 
> 
> Also, i don't know how you think this is going to end, but it's probably not it. It's not super sad for anyone. For once i think i managed to strike the right balance between "dramatic as hell" and "sappy as fuck", and that's not something i'm used to either, so if it surprises you, you and me both, then.
> 
> I hope everything is clear, but if by the time you reach the end there's something you feel wasn't explained well enough, please let me know and i will see what i can do to rectify!
> 
> I think i will add most of my notes at the end, because every time i read a chapter over again i remember something new i meant to say but then just as quickly i forget... smh
> 
> ANYWAY, i got this all outlined before i started writing, and by the time the first chapter is posted i already have some chapters written, so this whole thing probably won't take too long to be concluded. If plans don't change, it should be 6 chapters is total.
> 
> Enjoy! :D

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first phase of the Cobblepot-Nygma family's plan begins successfully. Martin meets with a friend. Harvey has a hard time keeping up.

Martin didn't even fight when they came to arrest him. He struggled a bit, sure, but that was mostly for show. He lowered his head so that nobody could take too much time studying his face, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway, nobody recognized him. He was taken away along with the other criminals, cuffed and thrown into a police van, and he sat there with them.

He kept a low profile, adhered to the rules, did what he was told to do, and now he was sitting in his cell. He smiled to himself. His cell-mate shot him a look.

«What the hell are you smiling about?»

Martin didn't bother responding. None of those assholes understood what he was saying anyway.

That had been as much of a problem as it had been an advantage. The downside was that communication hadn't been particularly effective, the bright side though, was that he had been able to just say whatever he wanted to their faces and then smile and nod and they wouldn't think twice about it, and smile and laugh along. He had kept on his own, anyway. Trying not to attract too much attention, except when necessary. Nobody really paid attention to him, and that's why he was the man best fit for this job.

He had spent weeks infiltrating various gangs, each time presenting with a different disguise and identity, and nobody had yet wised up to this fact, surely not the members of said gangs, let alone the police. Nobody paid attention, nobody cared enough to recognize him. Like he said, he was the ideal man for the job.

Because of that, and because of what he chose to do with this perk. He spent those weeks silently listening, following along, meticulously recording everything of importance and committing to memory every useful detail.

As to what the job was or why he had been doing this in the first place, the answer was about to arrive, hence why he was smiling.

Suddenly, a loud noise roared through the corridors or Blackgate. Martin's smile widened and he jumped to his feet, while his mate and literally everyone else had already gotten up and had their faces pressed against the bars, trying to figure out what was going on.

Martin didn't need to figure anything out, he had been waiting for this. Like clockwork, exactly when he had been expecting it. An entire wall had been taken down by an explosion, and electricity had gone down with it. The backup generator kicked in and the alarm went off, red lights intermittently illuminating every surface, while footsteps quickly approached. A moment later, all the cell doors opened, and the inmates didn't think twice before running outside.

There were sounds of people fighting, punches being thrown and hitting flesh, footsteps, tasers going off, and even a few gunshots, but in the chaos those noises went lost among the cheerful screams of inmates rushing towards the exits.

«Right this way, through here! Come, come, folks, no time to waste!» resonated a voice down the corridor.

Martin came face to face with the man who had just spoken, who was standing upright in his three-piece green suit, bowler hat and cane in hand.

The Riddler smiled conspiratorially at him, and Martin reciprocated the smile, before moving along. Now was not the time for a father-son moment. They had a lot to catch up on, but there would be time for that later.

Everyone followed the Riddler's lead, who instructed them about what to do and where to go, arming each of them as they left the premises. Martin stood by, watching over the situation and helping Edward with the task.

«Don't forget who your savior is! The Riddler broke you out, make no mistakes. And remember to thank the Penguin too, for the generous gift of these weapons.»

Edward declared, gesticulating dramatically, then laughed, watching satisfied while the criminals of Gotham flowed back into the streets.

By the time they would go back to their respective turfs, they would find an invitation – rather formal, I know – sent by the Riddler and Penguin. Unmistakeable umbrella symbol on each of them, green ink printed on fine paper. When the Penguin, or the Riddler, or both in case, did something, they did it in style.

Martin knew all of this, of course. He had been the one to orchestrate all of this. Who do you think had called the police to warn them about each gang's next move, allowing them to conduct the arrest in the first place? Well, not Martin, that had been Edward. But Martin had been the one to snitch on them, referring everything he had learned back to his father, so that he may proceed with the next part.

When everyone was out, Edward went back. He extracted one little metal sphere from his pocket and after pressing a small button on it, he gently threw it inside, letting it roll along the floor before exploding. He looked pleased at the result.

 

Now, all that was left to do, was rally up the gangs. Now that they were all properly pissed at the GCPD for messing up their respective plans.

They all reunited on somewhat neutral ground, dozens of people all gathered in one place, giving each other distrustful looks, and waiting for Oswald to start speaking.

Martin stood among the crowd, near the front. Oswald took the stage, and standing right beside him was Edward, who handed him a megaphone so that he may begin his speech.

«Thank you, dear.» Oswald said, and turned on the megaphone, which screeched for a second, before turning silent. He brought it to his mouth.

«Welcome everybody, thank you for accepting the invite.» he paused, allowing a few confused grunts from the crowd. Still, most of them stayed silent, curious to hear what Penguin could have to say.

«As you probably know by now, the Riddler and I orchestrated your escape. Why, you may ask? Because the GCPD has done enough damage to the fabric of this city's underworld as it is. I know what you are all thinking. How do we make them pay? Well, here's how. By organizing, and standing together!»

He opened his arms in a dramatic gesture. He was met with more grunts and scoffs, and a quiet muttering. Oswald cleared his throat. He looked at Edward for approval, and received a nod of encouragement, so he continued.

«Honor, respect, order... they used to mean something in this city, when crime families used to run Gotham. Alas, those families are no more.»

Oswald paused, kissing his fingers and sending the kiss up to the sky.

«If there's one thing Don Carmine Falcone has taught me, is the worth of these values. You may think they have nothing to do with crime, but think about it. How much have you ever been able to accomplish, really, having to fight and steal from each other, constantly worrying about when the next attack is gonna come, and on top of that, trying to stay away from the police.»

More muttering spread across the crowd. Many seemed to agree, but a few were shaking their heads and most still just looked confused. Oswald didn't lose heart.

«Now think how much easier it would be, if there were actual rules. If we could all trust each other not to steal, betray and murder? What would we all be able to accomplish if we set aside out differences, buried out axes, and worked alongside one another, like one big family?»

The muttering got louder, many voices disagreed with each other, and for a moment it looked like things could escalate into the biggest gang war Gotham had ever seen, but then some confused voice raised from the crowd.

«So now the Riddler works for you?»

Oswald was about to answer, but Edward grabbed Oswald's hand that was holding the megaphone and pulled it to himself so he could speak into it.

«Not _for_ him, I'm working _with_ him.» Ed said, almost sounding offended.

«Yes, exactly. We are working _together_ , just like any of you, of us, could be. The days when the GCPD could just stroll up in here and take what's ours are done. Now we stand together and when they come for us, we fight back! We are all the same to them, they don't care what we choose to call ourselves. But that ends today too. We defend each other and we defend each other's names, and in doing so, we defend ourselves!»

This time, finally a few cheers came from the crowd. Martin looked around, seeing people around him yell and laugh, clap, and wave their weapons in the air. He looked back at Oswald and found him stunned that that had actually worked.

Oswald looked at Ed and he smiled back at him with pride and satisfaction.

«To Gotham! To a new beginning!» Oswald shouted. Then, Ed once again took over the megaphone and shouted into it too.

«Fuck those assholes at the GCPD, fuck Commissioner Gordon, and fuck mayor James!»

Even louder cheers erupted from all over, people shouted and laughed, and some shot into the air in celebration.

Oswald seemed shocked by that reaction for a moment, and almost upset that Edward had taken his spotlight, but after seeing how much good it had actually done, he was able to relax, and he looked at the crowd, satisfied with the result.

Martin was clapping and smiling back at his dads, when he met both of their gazes and he could tell this was going to be a new chapter for Gotham.

 

Harvey surveyed the scene, sipping his coffee and still marveling at all the rubble laying where a wall used to stand. Vanessa walked up to him and stood by his side.

«Already been inside?» he asked.

«Yep. It was the Riddler, no doubt. Multiple witnesses attest this, and...»

Harvey sighed while he listened and took a big gulp of his coffee. When Harper reached the end of the sentence, he noticed she seemed to hesitate. He looked at her expectantly.

«...and then there is... this.»

Harper gestured for him to follow her and he did, sighing again, getting ready for whatever flavor of bullshit he was going to have to see now. Knowing Nygma – and knowing this city, honestly – he knew it could be nothing good.

When Vanessa stopped in front of some kind of strange, absolutely incomprehensible mess made of strings and knots. The strings seemed to be attached to the walls with very small hooks planted into the bricks. On the floor were a few metal scraps.

«What's with this?»

Bullock asked, kneeling down and picking up one of the metal pieces with a clean napkin he took from his pocket.

«We think it's part of what used to be some kind of contraption which when activated, self destroyed and produced... this.» she said, pointing at the strings.

Bullock stared at it, still struggling to understand what “this” was.

«Okay, what the hell am I looking at? I swear I haven't put enough whiskey in my coffee for this. Is this some kind of weapon? A Bomb? Was supposed to explode and stab someone with... you know... all those- tiny... tiny hooks?» Harvey heard himself lose hope before he could even finish the sentence. What the hell was he even talking about? He hated that he had had to hear himself say that. Vanessa shook her head, however, which was simultaneously a relief and a curse for Harvey.

«What is it, then?» he asked.

Vanessa put her hand on his shoulder and pushed him slightly. Harvey was confused, but he let himself be moved aside, and he remained just as confused until he looked back at the strings and realized that from that new perspective, the knots and the overlapping of various strings actually formed... well, formed some sort of something that probably wasn't nonsense but it still looked like it to him.

«Oh...?»

«It appears to be some extremely simplified map of the city, it's what I've been told. Personally, I'm not sure I can see it.» Harper supplied with a frustrated sigh.

«...Oh.» Harvey added, unhelpfully, and went to take one more sip of his coffee, only to realize the cup was already empty. He frowned at it and scoffed. Of course, today couldn't have started better. Maybe they would need some help, all considered.

 

Convincing the criminal gangs of Gotham to work together through a rousing speech had been the easy part. Less easy, was trying to actually stop those people from bickering and starting fights, and cooperate instead for once. Luckily enough, Oswald and Edward already had that part covered.

In the meantime, Martin had a mission of his own. Reconnecting with an old friend. Someone he had met basically by chance – unless you wanna believe in fate – and who, as Martin had had chance to find out, had more in common with him, at least in terms of goals, than he would have originally ever imagined.

 

Harvey crossed and uncrossed his arms multiple times as he waited, to the point where it was getting frankly embarrassing. He just didn't know what else to do with himself and he was growing impatient, but he didn't want to be rude, so he just stood there, while Lucius Fox examined the same intricate thread of strings that Harvey himself had already spent at least an hour looking at from different angles. None of them made sense. Until Lucius spoke.

«There, I got it.»

Harvey felt like he had just been waken up and startled, judging by the way he jumped, and then stepped closer to take a look.

«Show me what you got.»

Lucius nodded and pointed at a map of the city, specifically at a certain part of it. He had traced the shapes made by the strings onto a transparent sheet of plastic and he overlapped it with the map.

«Now, if you look at these...»

«The ones he highlighted.»

«Yes. They coincide with...»

«Banks! It's banks!» Harvey exclaimed, snapping his fingers. Lucius nodded.

«It's a goddamn clue, he is telling us he means to rob those banks! He thought we couldn't figure it out... Ha!»

Harvey sounded rather excited and he enthusiastically slapped Fox on the back, who politely smiled back at him, glad to have been able to help.

Harvey didn't waste time and immediately warned Harper, and then everyone else. They had a series of robberies to stop and a criminal mastermind to catch, no time to waste.

 

At about the same time, in two separate banks, a robbery was about to take place.

The police had been ready for it, placing patrols all around the block, and officers undercover as customers on the inside. Harvey was waiting outside, in his car. He looked anxiously at the time and frowned.

How did they know what time the robbery would be taking place? Well, that's simple. Harvey hadn't thought about this immediately, and he had felt like kind of an idiot when it was pointed out to him, but luckily for the detective, once again Lucius came to the rescue. See, the brilliant mind had noticed already that if the strings were to be looked at from an entirely different point of view, they would reveal some numbers. Harvey had to restrain himself from grabbing him and kissing him on the forehead – he just thought that would be weird to do, but he felt that grateful.

However, such information appeared to be incorrect, or at the very least inaccurate, because nobody who could look like they had the intention to start a robbery had shown up yet.

«Anything, yet?» he asked into the radio.

He heard a sigh come through.

«Nope. Nothing.» said Harper's voice.

«You think we've spooked 'em with the patrols and everything?» Harvey had to ask what he had been thinking about for a while.

«Maybe.»

If that were the case, then, job well done, right? They had still prevented a robbery, after all. And yet, something didn't sit right with him.

 

The Riddler strolled in, like he was going for a walk, turning quite a few heads even just because of his attire, but even more so because of the armed henchmen following him immediately behind.

People started screaming immediately, as soon as they noticed the guns.

«Now, normally I would love to play a game with you all, but tonight I'm in kind of a hurry, so if you don't mind...»

His henchmen – a mismatched group of criminals from different gangs – begun to threaten the employees until they would start to fill up their bags with money. But this wasn't all, in fact, Edward didn't even stop to look at them, and proceeded towards the vault instead.

He placed explosives in different points, but the right ones to make it work, then he took several steps back and covered his hears. Moments later, with a loud clang, the vault door fell off its hinges and onto the marble floor, which cracked under its weight.

Ed giggled, delighted.

 

Oswald strutted into the bank like he owned the place, cane in hand, following his uneven steps, shooting a few rounds of his submachine gun in the air.

Everybody in there started screaming, hiding, and ducking. Oswald smiled.

«Ladies, and gentlemen, please. There's no need to fret, just do as I say and everyone will make it home in time for dinner.»

While he said this, a few armed henchmen followed him.

«Let's begin, shall we?»

Oswald grabbed one of the bags and threw it at a bank employee, who shrieked, then nodded and got to work.

«You. Vault, now.» he gestured with his weapon at another employee, who struggled to hold the key to the gate that divided the space, almost dropping it out of fear.

Oswald nodded at a couple of his henchmen to tell them follow him, while he walked over to the vault.

«That's enough from you. We'll take it from here, thank you very much.»

He told the shaky employee, who looked like he could have passed out, while his henchmen got to work to place the explosives.

So far, Edward's plan had been working wonderfully – Oswald thought to himself while the vault door got blown up off its hinges.

 

Harvey received a signal from the radio and he responded, wondering what could be happening right now.

His eyebrows shot up, then fell down even deeper than earlier, when he heard that two different banks had been attacked. Two banks that weren't at all the ones that they had been checking on. All so focused on this, that they hadn't even stopped to consider the possibility that the information could be wrong.

«Of course, that son of a gun... gave us the wrong clues.»

He muttered to himself, turning on the siren and rushing into the traffic.

By the time police converged there, robbers were already gone, and so was all the money in the vault.

Harvey tiredly passed one hand over his face, while he stood there with his other hand on his hip, looking at the empty vault and at the heavy door laying on the floor.

Today hadn't been a great day.

He saw Alvarez and he walked over to him.

«Tell me you have good news. Of any kind. Somebody saved a kitten from a tree somewhere or something? Anything?»

Bullock's attempt at humor fell pretty flat on Alvarez, who just shook his head.

«No. All we know is Edward Nygma was here. He had people helping him too, he wasn't alone, but so far we haven't identified anyone. I talked to the witness, but none of them was really helpful. From what the say, everyone was wearing masks, aside from Nygma, of course.»

Harvey dropped his shoulders in resignation.

He took out his phone and called Harper to hear about the other bank. All he learned was that the exact same thing had happened over there, at the exact same time, except they had Penguin over there instead.

The detective closed his phone and grunted through his teeth in frustration.

«Dammit.»

They had no way of knowing where they had gone. They were gone long before they had gotten there, and then they had apparently disappeared. Again. Ever since the night Cobblepot and Nygma had escaped together, they had been hiding, and nobody had heard from them until the night before, when Nygma had thought it appropriate to make a fool of the entirety of the GCPD by breaking out every single criminal they had arrested just a day before. Almost as if this was all part of a larger plan... wait a minute. It totally was, of course. But what was said plan? Harvey had no fucking idea.

 

While his fathers were busy elsewhere, Martin was sitting at a nicely set table with a cup of tea in his hand, sipping it from time to time.

His host gestured to a plate of fresh biscuits. Martin nodded politely and reached out to take one.

«Hearing from you was quite the surprise, believe me my friend, you are a sight for sore eyes.»

Martin put down his half eaten treat and his cup and he replied.

«Same to you, my friend. I've come to you because the time has come.»

Jarvis' eyebrows shot up in excitement. He looked like he could have jumped out of his chair, but instead he collected himself and smiled mischievously.

«Such good news you bring me on this day, it is finally time for Jim Gordon to _pay_.»

 

Then, while his eyes were spacing out, Harvey happened to focus again on the lockers. There was something off with them. He walked closer and he noticed that some of them had numbers written on them with a marker or something.

Harvey wasn't sure what that meant, but knowing Nygma, that had to be another stupid fucking clue. He thought it right to record those numbers in their exact order and location on a notepad. Then, he called over the forensics photographer and he made sure that pictures of all of the lockers in question were taken.

He would have to look them over with Lucius before figuring out what that meant, right now he couldn't think of anything.

He would have paid real money for this bullshit to mean something, anything.

 

The next day, Bullock came in in the morning to find Lucius running to him with scribbled papers in his hands, looking frantic.

«Woah, there, calm down. What's going on?»

Lucius didn't seem to even register his question. He responded, surprisingly coherently too, but it was like he had been talking on autopilot.

«Remember the numbers on the lockers? I figured it out, it was letters of the alphabet- it's a message.»

Harvey took a deep breath, bracing for impact.

«Alright, what is this message?» it was early in the morning and he already sounded tired.

«A better question would be _for_ _whom_ is the message. It's directed to Jim Gordon.»

Harvey's eyebrows almost connected with his hairline.

«What does it say?»

He saw Lucius get even more serious, if that was even possible in that context, and the detective immediately knew that wasn't a good sign.

«It says to watch out, because a storm is coming.»

Okay. That... sounded less bad than Harvey had originally braced for, but still. He could understand Lucius' concern. It was still a threat, albeit an extremely vague one.

Harvey would have removed his hat and scratched the top os his head, if that wouldn't have made him appear like a caricature of a complete fool from an old cartoon.

«What does it mean? Is it... a riddle?»

He saw Lucius shake his shoulders. If even Fox didn't know, it wasn't looking particularly good.

«It could be a clue to something... But I can't think of what right now.»

«Right... well, in any case. Last time we paid that much attention to his clues, it turned out he was driving us off track. Playing us.» Harvey considered out loud.

«So you are suggesting we ignore it?»

«Could be an idea. God knows that freak thrives on attention, it wouldn't be so bad not to give it to him for once.»

Lucius nodded pensively.

«I still think we should warn Jim.»

Harvey put his hands on his hips and huffed. Lucius was right.

«Yeah, better to let him know.»

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter posted. Wow... i did it lmao
> 
> Just a few quick notes.
> 
> Writing Jervis is not one of my favorite things simply because of the fact that he always speaks in rhyme and i'm so bad at rhymes and it makes me feel stupid and lame!! so that was fun!! jokes aside, it actually was fun, but like... yeah, if the rhymes sound stupid, now you know why. It's 'cos m brain refuses. My brain just said "no thank you!!" so i had to work on my own.
> 
> Also, i don't know how they originally met. I just figured in those ten years Martin has been up to a lot, but you know. It's up to your interpretation. Also, i think i remember that after season 5 Tetch just escaped and was never caught, but in case he was, then, well, uhhh he got out or something, idk. This is Gotham City, a lot of shit happens.
> 
> That should be their city motto, actually. "Welcome to Gotham City. A lot of shit happens!"
> 
> ALSO, i kind of forgot that guys like Freeze, Firefly or Scarecrow existed??? smh... i meant to include them originally, but then things got too complicated, and then i just forgot. But the show already kind of forgot about them, so in a way, i feel like this is pretty close to canon tbh djkfgjdfg


	2. Trouble In Paradise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Martin has a job. Barbara's party doesn't go as planned. Lee is in trouble, and Jim has to make a choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit more Jim-centric (and probably the next one too) 
> 
> he is just going through a lot... *whispers* i'm putting him through a lot

Jim rushed to the entrance, trying to cover his head with his coat. He cursed himself for not bringing an umbrella, but he had had so much going through his mind – between Nygma's latest shenanigans, and what Harvey had told him – the weather had been the last of his worries.

He was presently worried about being late, for example. He had promised Barbara that he would have taken Barbara Lee to the party early, so she could give her a hand setting things up and fell useful, but they had ended up running late. And the fact that it was pouring didn't help.

He turned around, reaching out to take Barbara's hand.

«We are late. Mom is going to be mad.» she said, so matter of factly it felt like divine judgement bestowed upon him. He smiled.

«Yes, well. Let's not leave her waiting, then.»

They entered the hall right as the crack of thunder resonated loud between the tall buildings.

They hurried to the elevator, and quickly enough, they found themselves in the large room where the inauguration party was taking place. A few people were already there. Barbara Lee ran to her mom, while Jim left his damp coat with the lackey.

«Honey, you are drenched! What happened?» she asked the little girl, glaring at Jim.

«Sorry we are late.» Jim said, avoiding the topic.

«You are not, actually. Just in time.» Barbara smiled at both of them.

Jim internally let out a sigh of relief.

He looked around.

«Is Lee already here?» he asked.

Barbara had taken her daughter's hand and she was already heading towards the other side of the room to talk to some other guest who had just arrived.

«Yes, she was just here a moment ago.» she unhelpfully replied.

Jim continued to look around, until he spotted a tall woman with black hair and he smiled.

 

The party was going well, it seemed. The guests were chatting, drinking champaign and having fun.

Martin couldn't have cared less of what the guests were feeling, he just needed them all to be there, especially _someone_ – but everyone who needed to be there already was, as he ascertained scanning the room, while stopping by a group of people to let them take a cocktail snack from his tray.

He smiled politely at them and moved on.

His eyes fell on his target. She was standing momentarily alone, this was the perfect moment. He very casually approached the little girl. Walking past, he made sure to trip a woman, who in return bumped into the kid, making her drop her tart on her pretty blue dress.

The woman turned to the kid and started apologizing, but Martin stepped in the way, helpfully handing Barbara Lee a napkin. The girl smiled gratefully at him and tried to clean up the mess, but it didn't seem to be getting any better.

Martin made a face at her, which made her laugh, then he gestured for her to follow him, and together they walked to the kitchen. Nobody else was there at the moment.

Martin took a new napkin and dampened it just a little under running water, then handed it back to Barbara, who tried again to clean herself up, this time more successfully.

«Thank you.» she said. Martin smiled back.

She stared at him.

«Can't you talk?» she asked, after a moment.

«No, not with my voice.» he signed.

He saw the kid raise her eyebrows, then frown lightly.

«I don't know what that means.» she said.

Martin patted his suit jacket looking for something in a pocket, then extracted a small notepad with a miniature pen. He quickly scribbled on it.

«My name is Martin, what's yours?» the paper read.

Barbara's eyes lit up now that she could finally communicate.

«I'm Barbara Lee.»

 

Jim scanned the room, looking for his daughter to check on how she was doing. He couldn't find her anywhere and he begun to worry. He told himself she was probably off somewhere with Barbara, but when he located the host of the party, nowhere around her was any sign of the kid.

«Lee, have you seen Barbara Lee?» he asked his wife.

Lee turned to him with a surprised look on her face.

«I'm sure she is-»

«She's not with Barbara.»

Lee gave him a look meant to reassure him.

«She's somewhere in this room, we'll-»

Right in that moment, Jim's eyes fell on the right scene at the right moment and he interrupted whatever his wife was going to say, casually brushing his hand down her arm to let her know he got this, and he stormed off.

He saw his daughter walk into the kitchen with one of the waiters. She was following a stranger. He couldn't believe he would have to scold her for that, as if that wasn't a lesson he had already taught her ever since she was little.

Jim walked across the room as quickly as he possibly could without running, and barged into the kitchen.

 

There she was, and she was okay, thank god.

«Barbara, what have I told you abo-»

Jim cut himself off when he recognized the waiter. Instinctively, he grabbed Barbara by her arm and he was about to pull her away from him, but he stopped himself.

«What the hell are you doing here?» he asked.

«Dad!?» Barbara reprimanded him, undoubtedly for his language, and also for being rude.

He ignored her in favor of staring down Martin.

«I'm a waiter at the party.» he signed.

«I can see that.» Jim replied drily, eyeing his attire.

«You can understand him?» Barbara asked, in awe.

Martin smiled and quickly wrote down a message for her.

«It's called American Sign Language.» Barbara read out loud.

«Barbara, please.» Jim told her in a tone that let her know it was time to be quiet and let the adults speak, much to her disappointment.

«What were you doing?» he asked.

«Helping her with a stain on her dress. That napkin, I gave it to her.»

Jim didn't seem satisfied by those answers.

«And you just happen to be at this, of all parties, and you decide to befriend my daughter.» he sounded more accusing than the situation would have seemed to warrant, at least from the outside, and Barbara Lee was surely confused by her father's hostility towards this nice quiet man she had just met.

«You might not believe it, but even sons of known criminals need to pay their bills.» Martin signed, rather sarcastically.

Jim wasn't as fluent, but the tone wasn't entirely lost on him.

«Good on you, then, kid. An honest job.» Jim replied after staring him down for a moment longer.

He took again his daughter's hand, before speaking.

«We'll get going now. They'll be missing us, out there.»

«Don't let me hold you.» Martin signed with a smile.

Jim was about to turn and start leaving, but in that moment, screams reached his hears from the other room, and immediately the police officer in him took over, and he reached for a gun he only now realized wasn't there. Right. He was there as a guest. No gun.

Still, he turned to his daughter who looked kind of scared, and then at Martin, and the huffed through his nose.

«You stay here.» he told the kid, «Keep her safe. I'll go see what's going on.» he added directed at Martin.

Then, he walked back into the main room.

It was immediately clear that something had indeed happened. There was some kind of thick white smoke in the air. No, it wasn't smoke, it didn't smell like it. Some kind of gas, then.

Jim covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve as best as he could, and he ventured further into the room, even though it was close to impossible to see what was happening.

Some people were still screaming, but Jim begun to suspect that was more out of fear for the unexpected presence of the gas, than because something actually bad was happening. He wasn't even sure what this gas was, but it didn't seem to be doing much, aside from impairing your vision and making you cough a bit.

«Lee! Barbara!» he shouted, unsure where to look.

«Jim! I'm here!» Barbara's voice called back. Jim followed that voice.

He bumped into Barbara and held her at her elbows, just to avoid losing contact with her. She coughed briefly.

«Where is Barbara Lee?» she asked, concerned.

«She is safe in the kitchen. The gas hasn't spread as much in there, yet.»

Barbara seemed to calm down a bit at this reassurance. She seemed still confused and pretty pissed off about this whole situation, anyway. She couldn't have been happy that, whatever this was, it was disrupting her party.

Then, the ventilation begun working again, and little by little the gas begun to dissipate, until it disappeared entirely, and vision cleared up again. Jim went around the room asking people how they were doing, and he checked up with security to make sure everything was alright again and to try to figure out what had just happened.

 

Jim Noticed Barbara heading for the kitchen and he quickly excused himself and followed her, speeding up to catch up with her and they both entered the room at the same time.

Barbara looked around for signs of her daughter, and a moment later the kid came out from under a table and ran to her, hugging her at her waist, much to her relief.

Jim continued looking around, looking for anyone else or a sign that anything was out of place, until he noticed something.

Jim walked closer to the corner where Barbara Lee had been hiding and he found Martin, who seemed to be struggling to stand up, but he did it.

Jim immediately noticed his swollen lip and a small cut on his cheek which was beginning to bruise too.

«What happened?» he asked.

«We were hiding in here-»

Martin begun to sign, but he was interrupted when Barbara Lee spoke, taking Jim's attention away from him.

«A scary man tried to take me, but Martin punched him super hard and saved me!» she explained excitedly.

Jim frowned. Why would someone try to take his daughter?

He looked back at Martin, who was just standing there with a kind of blank expression. Jim grimaced. He wasn't happy about any of this, but he guessed he had no choice. He really had to thank Martin for saving his daughter, no matter how much he didn't trust him. He had done a good thing, and possibly saved a life, the least he could do was show some gratitude.

«Thank you.» was all he said.

Martin responded with a nod and a weak smile, while massaging his jaw and flinching when it clearly hurt.

«Thank you so much, you saved my daughter. I'm in debt with you.»

When Jim heard Barbara say that, his head snapped in her direction and he shot her a disapproving look. Sure, Martin had been heroic, but still, he didn't feel it would ever be the case to make statement like that one directed at him.

«What?» Barbara asked, noticing Jim's expression. He shook his head, letting her know to let go. He would explain the situation to her later, he doubted she knew who that man was and he didn't want to make a scene right now. He already had worse things to worry about, since apparently someone had tried to take his daughter. He started to think the gas had been meant to be cover for this. But why Barbara Lee specifically? Why target this party of all places?

Then, he realized something, and he couldn't help but panic a little at this realization, although he could have been wrong, and he so hoped to be.

«Excuse me.»

He ran out of the kitchen without explanation and started looking for Lee, but after a moment it became clear that there was no sign of her anywhere, nobody had seen her. He tried calling for her, but she didn't answer.

«Dammit... Lee.» he muttered worriedly to himself.

«What's going on?» asked Barbara, who had just walked up behind him, and placed a hand on his shoulder.

«Lee is gone.»

Jim let out a long sigh in an attempt to alleviate the stress, but it didn't really help. His wife had just disappeared, most certainly taken by god knows who, and this seemed like a pretty good moment to panic.

 

Jim was hunched over a desk, studying lists of names of everyone who had been invited or had been working at the party, and looking over maps of the ventilation system for Barbara's tower, in an attempt to figure out who could have done it, and how, and why.

Then Harvey barged through the door.

«Jim! Jim, are you alright?» he asked, running to him and grabbing his shoulders to check up on him.

«My wife was kidnapped. No, I'm not alright.» Jim spit out through his teeth without even looking up at his friend.

Harvey stood back and looked at him. Jim realized he was being an asshole for no reason. He sighed and dropped a pen he had been fidgeting with, leaning back and away from the desk, finally looking at the detective.

«Sorry. I've been up all night trying to understand this... Whoever it was, they tried to take Barbara Lee too.»

Harvey gasped and instinctively grabbed a chair and sat next to Jim, getting closer to him.

«Holy shit, Jim! Is she...»

«She is fine. Martin saved her from the aggressor.» Jim said with a quick smile which didn't even reach his eyes before disappearing. He saw Harvey frown.

«Martin? You mean Penguin's kid?»

Jim nodded.

«He was one of the waiters.» Jim helpfully explained, and Harvey nodded.

«So, you have any idea who this could be?»

«Absolutely no clue. I have a feeling this is about me.»

Harvey's eyebrows shot up.

«You think you were the target?»

Jim picked up the pen and started fidgeting with it again, and nodded.

«They took my wife and tried to take my daughter. Unless they were after Lee... but if I have to be honest, during my career I've pissed off more people in a week than she could have in her entire life.»

Harvey hummed in agreement.

 

Later that day – since Jim has spent the whole night up and it was now the next day – Harvey convinced Jim to go home.

There wasn't much he could do and he seriously needed some sleep, even if he doubted he would be able to calm down enough to actually fall asleep. So now he was in his empty apartment – Barbara Lee had stayed the night at Barbara's.

He tiredly passed a hand over his eyes, massaging his eyelids, and when he opened them again he noticed something. An envelope had been slipped under his door. He frowned and stared at it. He wondered if it had been there before, but he could be certain. He was pretty sure it wasn't there when he had opened the door, but he was too tired to tell.

So he walked over and he picked it up. It seemed like a perfectly normal envelope. He walked to the kitchen to get a knife and he opened it.

Inside, he found a folded sheet of paper with mismatched letters glued to it. He blinked at it in disbelief, but as he begun reading it, his frown got deeper and deeper.

The message clearly said not to contact anyone. No police. He had to go alone if he wanted to see his wife alive again. It indicated a time and a location. Jim sighed and stared at the ransom note some more. He had no choice.

 

He drove to the specified location and found himself in front of a large apparently abandoned warehouse.

He took out his gun and he approached the entrance, peeking inside before walking in, but it was too dark inside and he couldn't tell anything apart.

Once in, he had to walk a while until he reached another room built within the larger structure. A shy light illuminated the door just enough for him to see it, and he felt compelled to enter. As soon as he did, the light inside the room came on and he squinted for a moment before being able to see.

When he finally was able to focus his eyes, they went wide at that sight.

In front of him were two large glass container and above them dangerously hanging some barrels the contents of which he could only try to guess.

And there she was, Lee. Inside one of those two glass containers, sitting, no, tied to a chair. Inside the other one were six people, all tied up to chairs as well. They had gags so they couldn't scream, but the moment he stepped into that room, everyone begun to try, even if every sound came out muffled, undoubtedly begging for his help.

Jim watched all of those people and studied the situation, trying to figure out what the game here was, but before he could make any guesses of his own, a speaker came on and a deep, distorted voice spoke.

«Hello, Jim. It's good to see you, and you are alone too, just like I asked. Aren't you a brave little soldier?»

«Who are you? What do you want from me? Let these people go!» Jim shouted at the air.

He knew it would be pointless, but it seemed like that thing to say.

He scanned the room and he noticed that there were in fact speakers in the corners, as well as cameras and microphones. Whoever was behind this was watching and listening. Jim swallowed.

A laugh came through, partially broken by the electronics.

«I'm afraid that's your job, Jim.»

The fact that they kept calling him “Jim” made him think this had to be someone who knew him well enough, or felt like they knew him well at least, so Jim had to be right, this was personal. He didn't have much time to think about this, however, because the voice kept talking, distressing Jim even further.

«And before we start, I'm gonna have to ask you to drop your gun or there will be consequences. I have provided all the tools you need, no worries.»

Jim looked around and he saw a metal cart with a single hammer placed on it. Jim hesitated, but he placed his gun on the table right next to the hammer. From the speakers came a humming of approval.

«Good boy. Now. So, Jim, you are going to have to choose. Here's the rules, it's a simple gamble. There is a right answer and a wrong answer. If you pick the right one to save, the other walks free too. If you pick the wrong one... well...»

The sentence culminated in a chuckle. That sick bastard was having fun – Jim thought in disgust.

«So, it's up to you, Jim. Who do you choose? Who deserves to live? Whose lives you are willing to gamble with?»

Jim felt a drop of sweat running down his temple. He clenched and unclenched his clammy hands. He had to find a way to save both.

«Oh, I forgot to say. You don't have all day. In fact, I'de say you have about two minutes and a half. Sorry, it was meant to be three, the timer has already started. Tick. Tock, Jim.»

_Fuck._

Jim had to think fast, but his brain was caught up in a haze and his stomach was turning inside out.

So, he could chose to save those people, but if that was the wrong choice, his wife would die. If the chose to save Lee, he could potentially save those people too... but if that turned out to be the wrong choice, those people would die.

There was no easy answer, and the clock was ticking. More time he spent thinking, less time he would have to break the glass and rescue whoever he wanted to rescue. He hated that he couldn't tell for sure who this was, because this way he had no way of safely guessing what they would consider the “right answer” to be. He had to act based on his own instincts, his own desire.

The thought of seeing Lee die before his eyes terrified him. It's true that there was no easy choice, but one thing was true. Braking through the glass and untying one person would take way less that having to untie six people. He would have no time, most likely he wouldn't be able to save them all in time. The voice hadn't specified, but it was pretty obvious, that clearly some sort of lethal substance was in those containers hanging over their heads, and when the time would end, that stuff would drop over their heads.

He looked at the diverse group of people. Three of them were young, two women and a man, probably college students, one was an old lady, and two were a middle aged man and a woman, seated next to each other. He had no time to try to discern what those people could have done wrong to deserve such a fate, because no matter what conclusion he could reach, nothing would change the fact that Lee was about to die.

Jim grabbed the hammer and ran towards Lee, beginning to hit the glass repeatedly. Lee tried to yell at him, but her gag was impeding the message from reaching him, and he just kept hitting and hitting, until there was a crack, and with the next blow, glass shards fell to the floor, a few flying in different directions from the impact, but Jim didn't pay attention even as a few small ones hit him in the face, causing him to bleed from small cuts.

Lee was now more distressed than ever, and so were those other people, but Jim couldn't focus on that.

«It's going to be alright, I'm getting you out of here.»

He tried to reassure his wife, but she struggled against his touch while he tried to untie her. It seemed like an impossible task and it was taking forever. Jim nervously glanced up at the vat above their heads and continued working. As soon as he was able to free one of Lee's hands, she used it to reach for her gag and removed it.

«Jim, what are you doing? You have to save them!» she screamed.

Jim continued his work, finally untying her other hand too. With both of them free, Lee grabbed him by his shoulders and glared at him with one of the most pained expressions he had ever seen on her face.

«There is no time, I couldn't save all of them in time anyway, and if I chose wrong, they would kill you too.»

Jim explained while finishing untying her ankles.

Lee sprung up, pushed him aside and grabbed the hammer from the floor, running to the other glass tank. The people inside looked at both of them with pleading expressions and even though Jim couldn't understand them, it didn't take a genius to know that they were begging Lee to hurry as she ran to them.

«So you have chosen love over your civil duty. How passionate, so romantic... too bad, however, that that wasn't the right answer. Say goodbye, everyone.»

Before the voice was even done speaking, the vat over those people begun to tilt, right as Lee was about to hit the glass, and Jim had to act on instinct and he leaped forward, pushing Lee out of the way and onto the floor, before she could start smashing.

«Why did you do that?!» she cried.

«You could get hurt, we don't even know what's in there!»

They didn't have to wonder for much longer, because as soon as the dense opaque liquid became spilling over them, the prisoners let out a cacophony of muffled screams, and by the time they were entirely submerged it was impossible to see inside, but no noise was coming from the glass container anymore.

Jim and Lee watched horrified from the floor as this spectacle unfolded.

Once Lee managed to recover from the shock, she pushed Jim off her and scooted away, looking at him with such anger and pain, and tears in her eyes, that Jim couldn't remember her looking at anyone like that in so long, let alone at him. Last time he could recollect her directing a similar expression at him, had been when he had shot Mario, and in their subsequent fallout, all those years.

He couldn't bear the idea of Lee hating him, but he had had to save her life, it was the only possible choice.

He tried his damned best to convince himself of it.

 

Jim called the police. He sounded tired as he spoke to Harvey on the phone. Lee was sitting in his car, she avoided his eyes even if he couldn't stop watching her from where he was standing outside.

He was going to get to the bottom of this and whoever was responsible would face punishment for it.

As for Lee... he wasn't sure if she could forgive him, but in all honestly, he couldn't actually blame her.

If who was responsible had to pay, then, what about the man who had just condemned six innocent people to their deaths to save his wife?

 


	3. Wrong Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lee has a hard time coping. Martin furthers his plans. Jim makes a bad judgment call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there are any misspellings, or you find the wrong word in a sentence, please let me know! I read each chapter multiple times before posting and yet some mistakes still slip past me... i just cannot fucken read, folks! smh

Harvey surveyed the scene, then turned to Jim.

«Hey. Did you get any sleep at all?»

He just had to ask. His friend looked like shit, to put it mildly. Jim shook his head, Harvey grimaced. He walked over to him and put one hand on his shoulder.

«Go get some rest.»

«Six people are dead, Harvey. Because of me. Lee almost died. They tried to get Barbara Lee... she could have been here too. How am I supposed to rest?»

Harvey gave him an understanding look and tried to sound as sympathetic as he could.

«Jim... you won't be of any use if you can't even stand. You have been through a lot, just take some time. I'll call you as soon as we learn something, you have my word.»

Jim looked at him in the eyes and he seemed hesitant for a moment, but then sighed and nodded. He looked like he had aged another ten years in just one night. Harvey was relieved that his friend had accepted his advice, but he still had a lot to worry about. This case continued to make no sense.

A lot had been happening in Gotham recently, it was wild that it would all happen in such a short time. They still weren't anywhere near catching Nygma and Penguin for the robberies, and now this.

Bullock scratched his chin. He watched Jim walk away, then went back inside. They were still draining the liquid from the glass container, but they were almost done. They had been very careful because they weren't sure what the hell that was in there.

Now that the container was almost empty, Harvey watched in horror as the only thing that emerged where clothes and a confused mess of bones.

It was gross, and horrifying, especially to think that that used to be people. It had been hours since this all had begun, so Harvey guessed that whatever that was it had to be some kind of acid and it had had the time to do its work in the meantime.

 

Jim knew Harvey was right, but Harvey hadn't seen the way Lee had looked at him. Jim held no doubt that Lee felt responsible for what happened to those people, and he knew that he had indirectly gotten her involved in his choice, even if she had had no say in the matter, and he knew she must have been feeling guilty, just as much as he was.

Which was why, he should have gone home to her, to talk to her, confront her, let her scream at him or do whatever she felt like she needed to do to get it out of her system, but that thought, of Lee looking at him like that again, was paralyzing, which was why Jim chose not to go home at all.

He went to the precinct and he found a quiet place where he could rest – not sleep, but it was still better than nothing – and he waited for Harvey to come in with some new useful information.

 

Lee was home with Barbara Lee, trying to make dinner for them, but her mind kept drifting to the events of the day.

«Mom, what's that smell?» Barbara called her from the living-room.

Lee snapped back to reality and realized the smell was their dinner burning. She turned off the stove and took the pan off it, then covered her face with her hands and broke down, beginning to cry quietly.

«Mom?» Barbara walked into the kitchen and Lee sniffled and quickly wiped away the tears with her sleeves, before putting on a smile and turning around to face her daughter.

«You know what? How do you feel about pizza?»

She saw Barbara Lee's face light up and she chuckled at that response.

 

«Are you okay? You look sad.»

Barbara said at some point.

Lee finished chewing a big bite of pizza and shook her head.

«Yeah, of course I'm okay, why? Are you worried about me?» Lee asked.

The kid nodded and Lee's heart sunk. She thought she would be putting on a brave face for her daughter, but apparently she hadn't been doing a good enough job.

«It's okay. I'm fine. I'm just very tired.»

Lee thought about it. She didn't want to lie to her daughter, but she didn't want to freak her out more than necessary.

«Remember how you felt after dad saved you from that crazy man who kidnapped you?»

Barbara nodded.

«Yes, well... I guess I feel like that too. I know I'm safe now, but it was very scary.»

Barbara paused, then put down her slice of pizza and she reached for Lee, wrapping her arms around her.

«Then you need to hear what you told me when that happened to me. Don't worry, dad is always there to protect us, nothing really bad will happen to us.»

Lee listened to those words and she was glad that her daughter was hugging her, so she couldn't see her face, because she was starting to cry again. She held her breath in the hope of suffocating a sob, and squeezed her eyes shut, letting one tear roll down her cheek.

«Thank you.» she smiled, pulling back, «I feel much better now.»

Barbara Lee smiled back and resumed eating her pizza.

Lee thought about it and realized she hadn't really asked her how she had felt the night of the party, since she hadn't had a chance to see her since, with her getting kidnapped and all.

«How did you feel when all that smoke came out of nowhere?»

She was about begin her question with “were you scared” but she decided against it. That's what some would have called a leading question. She didn't want to put words, or feelings in this case, in her mouth.

«I didn't really see much of it, actually. I wasn't there when it happened, I just heard some people scream, but I wasn't that scared...»

Lee got the feeling her kid was lying about not being scared, but at the moment she found herself more interested in the rest of that statement.

«What do you mean, where were you?»

«I was in the kitchen with Martin.» Barbara Lee said very casually, taking another bite of pizza.

Lee stared at her, her brain trying to connect the words with their actual meaning.

«Martin? Is he by chance, a tall, mute guy?» she asked. She didn't know many Martins, but she could have been mistaken.

Instead, Barbara nodded excitedly.

«You know him? He helped me with my dress because it was dirty, then he punched a guy in the face! He was very brave, I would have punched him myself, but I don't think I could have reached his face...»

Barbara Lee seemed to get lost in thought, but this gave Lee some time to think too.

«Wait, what guy did he punch? Did someone try to take you too?» Lee was only now beginning to understand the real meaning of all of this. The same people who had done all that to her, were going to do the same to her kid. Barbara nodded.

She could have been right beside her in that glass tank, gagged and tied up, waiting for fate to decide what would be of her.

Suddenly, Lee felt the urge to hug her again, but she didn't want to freak her out too much, so she smiled and nodded in acknowledgment like everything was fine.

«So, tell me about Martin. What do you think about him?» she asked, trying to pry about the man's intentions.

She had heard about him from Jim more than once, but she hadn't met him. She had always had the feeling that Jim felt responsible for Martin, in some backwards way, she knew her husband cared about him, but at the same time, she had rarely heard Jim talk positively about him. So, she had had no chance to form a proper opinion of her own about Martin, but she decided now was the time that would change.

 

Lee learned that Martin was a waiter at the party, so she contacted Kean to ask her his contact as a favor, saying she wanted to thank him in person. Barbara seemed to agree with her and gladly gave her the information.

Lee decided to send him a text message, inviting him over for lunch the next day. She was pleased when he accepted and she gave him the address.

 

«Jim, I thought I told you to go home.» Harvey sighed.

«You told me to rest.» Jim corrected him, standing up from the chair he had spent far too many hours in and probably also slept in, and stretching his limbs.

«Is that what you were doing? Sleeping in a chair at the precinct, you call that resting?»

Harvey wasn't having any of his bullshit.

Jim figured this and he sighed too, lowering his shoulders. The detective gave him a sympathetic look and a pat on the shoulder.

«Look, why don't you go home. I'll call you as soon as the results come in, alright? Get some decent sleep, I'm begging you, it's like working with a zombie.»

Jim perceived the hint of humor in Harvey's voice and he responded to him by smiling sheepishly. Yeah, he could believe that. He hadn't looked at himself in a mirror yet, but he wasn't eager too. He knew Harvey was right.

«Alright, I'll go get some coffee and get out of here. Some fresh air will do some good for me.»

Harvey didn't look too happy, but Jim saw him resign himself to the fact that he couldn't convince him and watched him shake his head. This made Jim laugh. It felt good too, like taking the tiniest amount of weight off his chest.

So, Jim walked outside and stopped at the first place he came across that sold coffee and he ordered his, but on his way back, he bumped into someone and he spilled the coffee all over himself.

He caught himself from swearing, and he apologized instead, admitting that his head hadn't exactly been on his shoulders lately, as tired as he was, but when he looked at that man in the eyes, he felt like lightning had just struck him.

«You... I recognize you. It can't be, you were... yesterday, you were there!»

He realized he sounded like a crazy person, and he almost told himself he was probably starting to lose his mind, but to his surprise, the man shoved him aside and started running.

«Stop! Stop, GCPD!»

Jim ran after him and quickly enough he was able to tackle the man to the ground and cuff him.

He turned him around and studied his face. He couldn't be mistaken, he had taken a good look at all those faces, in fact, they were impressed in his memory and they were there to torment him every time he closed his eyes.

No, he wasn't mistaken. This young man was one of the victims from the sadistic game they had all been forced to take part in just a day prior. It made no sense. How was this man alive?

 

The doorbell rang and when Lee opened the door, there stood a man about as tall as Jim, in his early twenties judging by his looks, with a mess of curly hair on his head, wearing a dark sweater on top of a light blue dress shirt and light brown suit pants. He didn't exactly look like a criminal, more like a hipster-ish college student – this was Lee's first thought.

Of course, appearances could trick you, but this was the same man who had saved her daughter from being kidnapped. The two things together had to mean something. She smiled and invited him to come in.

Immediately, Barbara ran to him and hugged his legs. Lee thought he looked surprised, but he still smiled back. She also noticed he had a small notepad with a tiny pen hanging from his neck.

«Well, let's not all just stand at the door, please, come in. I was just making lunch.»

Martin smiled and followed her inside.

 

Harvey frowned when he saw Jim walk in with a perp. Jim walked up to him, pushing the young man in front of him and only stopping when he was sure that Harvey had had the chance to take a good look at that man's face. Harvey gave him a quizzical look.

«This man was there. He was supposed to be dead, Harvey, how is he not dead?»

Harvey's eyes went wide while Jim spoke. He looked around, then got closer to Jim and whispered.

«Jim... are you absolutely sure of what you are saying? You are very tired, you haven't slept in-»

«I'm sure, Harvey.»

Jim sounded one step removed from unhinged, but if his former partner was so sure about something, Bullock knew better than to contradict him, and so he followed along.

They tried to interrogate that man, but they couldn't get anything out of him, besides very basic information about who he was. He insisted he knew nothing about all this business they kept going on about and he was sorry for bumping into the commissioner and making him spill his coffee.

Harvey gave Jim a look as if to ask him if that was seriously the reason he had brought him in, but Jim made a face between indignant and exasperated and turned back to the man on the other side of the table.

Harvey took Jim aside and they talked quietly in a corner of the room.

«Okay, I didn't want to say this yet because it sounds insane, but while you were gone the results came in.»

Jim looked at him with a face that said “And?” without any need for him to speak.

Harvey looked around conspiratorially as if that was necessary.

«That green crap wasn't acid. It's got a fancy scientific name I already forgot, but it wasn't acid.»

Jim frowned and stared at him.

«Jim, how the hell were there bones if that wasn't acid? Where did those people go?»

Jim's eyes went wide with understanding. He turned to the man sitting in the interrogation chair, more determined than before.

He walked up to the table and slammed both hands on the surface.

«You'll tell me what's going on right now, or so help me-»

«Jim, wait. The man looks legitimately frightened.»

Jim looked back and it was true. He looked like he was shaking.

Jim calmed down a bit and sat down. Harvey followed.

«Look. We know you were there and you survived. We need to know how. Who put you up to this? Where are the others?» the commissioner asked, in the hopes of sounding as collected as possible.

«I... I don't know. I don't know what you are talking about. I was going for my morning jog, then all of sudden I was back at my house, taking a shower with all of this... goo... coming off me. I don't know, man. I went for a walk in the hopes of clearing my mind, when I bumped into you-»

«Wait, goo? It was green, wasn't it?» Harvey asked.

«Yes, why?» the man asked.

Harvey and Jim shared a look.

«And you remember nothing of what happened in between those two events, or how the goo got on you?» Jim pressed.

«No, I told you, I just kind of... woke up, ant here I was. No idea how-»

Jim leaned close to Harvey, voicing his thoughts. The experience the man was describing was starting to sound oddly familiar, and he felt like Harvey should have reached the same conclusion by now.

«He was hypnotized.» he said.

Then, both turned to the man who had started to slow-clap. Jim frowned.

«Bravo, Jim Gordon, the mystery has been solved. You figure it out, hypnosis was involved!»

Jim's eyes widened in hearing those words, or, more specifically, at the fact that those sentences rhymed. Both him and Bullock were on their guard, tensing up and ready for whatever unexpected move the man could do.

It was obvious that he was still hypnotized and possibly something they had said and triggered it, and now he was just a puppet, referring Jarvis Tetch's message to them.

«Now listen carefully, old friend of mine. If you care for your wife, you'll fall in line.»

«What?» Jim frowned at the mention of Lee.

«This little scheme a secret remains, or doctor Thompkins will lose more than her brain. Not a word about the missing bodies or my deceit, I trust you'll comply, without missing a beat.»

«Jim...»

Harvey tried to get to Jim, but he was just staring at the man, baring his teeth in rage and disgust, even though he knew that poor guy was just another victim of that lunatic, but he wasn't expecting this. He wasn't prepared. The threat was vague, but it was still there.

For whatever reason, Tetch didn't want Jim to tell Lee the truth. Maybe he wanted her to believe he really had killed those six people, or maybe, who knows. Whatever the reason, it was clear something bad would happen to Lee if he didn't obey, and since he didn't know what the specific danger was, he had no way to prevent it, so all he could do was do just as he was told.

«Jim.»

He finally turned to his friend, who gave him a worried look. Jim begun to wave a hand to dismiss his concern and communicate he was fine, even though he very clearly wasn't, when the man begun slamming his head against the table. The sudden noise startled both of them, but they recovered and jumped into action, circling the table and trying to hold the man still to stop him from hurting himself. Despite their efforts, the man managed to his his head one more time, hard enough to hurt his temple and leave a splotch of blood on the table.

Jim gave Harvey a look, looking for confirmation, but there wasn't much else they could do. Bullock nodded. Jim took out his gun and hit the man in the head with it, knocking him out. Finally the struggle ended, and both men relaxed a bit.

 

Lee watched the young man eat in silence, and making funny faces at her daughter and making her laugh. He really didn't seem like the kind of guy who would be able to commit any sort of violent crime, despite what Jim seemed to be convinced of. But Lee had once considered Edward a friend, back when he was an employee at the GCPD, and he turned out to be capable of any atrocity too. That was different, Lee told herself, Ed had always been a bit of an oddball, he was never mentally stable in the first place either.

Martin just seemed like a kind, nice young man. Barbara Lee surely seemed to like him a lot. He was inexplicably good with children, considering the difficulties in communicating.

After they were done with lunch, Lee got up to collect the dishes, while Barbara ran to the living-room to go watch tv, and Martin got in her way, beginning to collect cutlery from the table.

«Oh, no, it's not necessary, you are a guest. But thank you.»

Martin paused, then smiled warmly and moved to the sink to place in there what he had taken from the table. Lee patiently waited for him to get out of the way before placing the dishes in there too.

She quickly glanced at the next room and she heard the telltale sounds of cartoons on tv, so she relaxed and turned to Martin again. He was already looking at her, like he'd knews she had something she wanted to say.

«I feel like I still haven't thanked you enough for saving her.»

Lee looked at his face, and a faint bruise was still visible on his cheekbone. Martin shook his head and picked up his notepad and his pen, and he quickly wrote down a response.

«I did what any other person would have done. You invited me into your home, offered me lunch. We are even.»

Lee read that, then raised an eyebrow.

«It hardly feels like we are even. Making some mac and cheese doesn't exactly qualify as life-saving.» she chuckled. Martin smiled again and begun writing.

«What I mean is what your family has done for me.»

Martin quickly showed the pad, before turning it around and continuing writing. Lee waited patiently.

«I was in a bad place for many years, angry, alone, I made bad choices. But Jim was always there, he was the only one who believed in me.»

He showed her the pad again, then turned the page and continued.

«I held this fantasy that Oswald, Edward and I could be a family, but those men were criminals and it was just that. A fantasy. I never really had a family.»

Lee almost teared up when she read that, but Martin didn't seem to be done yet.

«Jim was the only thing similar to a father that I've had during all these years. So thank you.»

When Lee read that, she couldn't help but let out a little gasp and covered her mouth with her hand. She tried not to cry and she mostly succeeded, so she smiled instead, with a slight tilt of her head.

«I'm sure Jim feels the same way. You will be always welcome here.»

She wasn't actually sure. She knew Jim had put a lot of effort into trying to bring this kid on the right path, but from what she had previously gathered, he had seemed to have decided he was a lost cause and had given up. From what she was seeing right now, though, that didn't seem the case at all, and she just had to marvel at how wrong Jim could be sometimes.

But that was nothing new. Jim could be wrong, he could make mistakes, even really bad ones.

Martin seemed to notice her change in mood and he got her attention by placing the pad again in her field of vision. She focused her eyes back on it and read the new message.

«Is everything alright? I've heard you got snatched that night. I'm sorry.»

Lee sniffled and shook her head, trying to appear as calm as possible.

«Yeah, but- no, I'm fine, thank you.»

Martin didn't look too convinced.

«Are you sure? You can talk to me about it, if you want.»

She was surprised to read that, and she looked back up at him in awe for a moment. Of course, she shouldn't have been so surprised. He was such a kind person.

«No, I... I would rather not. It was a lot. I'm not ready to share... but thank you for offering.»

She offered a smile and patted him on the shoulder.

He hesitated, then dropped the notepad like he had wanted to say something but though better of it, and he nodded instead.

 

After that man was detained for his own safety, Harvey and Jim got a chance to talk again, alone.

«So what are you gonna do?» asked the detective.

«I don't have much of a choice, do I?» Jim huffed.

«Are you going home?»

Jim sighed. He had to, he had been away for a whole day since the whole incident had happened. He missed his family, and he would have to confront his wife at some point, anyway.

 

Before he would do that, he had something else that he couldn't take off his mind.

He had tried talking about it to Harvey, but he wasn't sure his friend was fully convinced about this.

All he had to do was think about it, it seemed logical. This wasn't Jarvis Tetch's modus operandi. For starters, he was known for having no particular regard for human life, so he was surprised nobody had actually died yet, unless something even bigger was coming their way, thought he found terrifying enough on its own. Then, there was the fact that he hadn't even dignified them with his presence. Why all the secrecy? He understood why he wanted Jim to be unable to tell his wife the truth, that was some kind of torture, of course. But why not show up in person at the warehouse? Why use a voice-distorter? The voice didn't even speak in rhyme, so it couldn't be him, anyway. Not just that, but Jim thought he had the guy figured out enough that he would have expected him to just go for Lee or their daughter and kill them in front of him, since inflicting that kind of pain on him was clearly all he cared about. So why go through all these extra hoops and twists? The more he thought about it, the more all of this begun to feel more like a _riddle_.

There was his answer.

The jail break of the gangs, the bank robbery, _the threat_... only now Jim remembered about that. With everything that happened, he had almost forgotten about a threat to his life – that's how wild his life had gotten, by the way. What was that it said? Beware of a storm, or something? Jim remembered it was raining cats and dogs that night, the night Lee got kidnapped.

Of course. It had been before his eyes all along, the Riddler was behind this.

If that were true, then... had it been really a coincidence that Martin, of all people, would be _there_ on that night?

Jim couldn't shake off this thought. It made so much sense, now. Had the attempt to kidnap Barbara Lee been all a rouse too? Did they stage that too, just to fuck with his head?

Before he knew it, Jim found himself before Martin's apartment. He rang the bell and knocked on the door, but there was no answer. He froze and listened, trying to hear any noise that could alert him that Martin was hiding, but it simply looked like he wasn't home. He would have to try again tomorrow. Frustrated, Jim left the apartment complex and headed home.

 

He turned the key and walked in, removing his coat and hanging it. Before he could let his family know he was home, he noticed something.

There was another jacket hanged there, one he couldn't immediately recognize. He asked himself who else could be there. Then, as he walked into the living-room, he found himself face to face with Martin.

Saying Jim was surprised, would have been the understatement of the century.

The thing that struck him immediately about this, the thing that made this scene extra wrong, was all the red on Martin's sweater, and was that a small knife in his hand?

«What the fuck did you do, you bastard!?»

Jim shouted before launching himself at him. Martin didn't really react, and so he lost his balance and both tumbled to the floor. Jim squeezed and twisted his wrist until he got him to drop the knife, then he punched him repeatedly. He couldn't understand why, but Martin was smiling. There was even more red on his clothes now, and blood on his teeth and he kept smiling at him. Jim couldn't understand and this made him angrier.

«Jim, what are you doing!? Oh, my God, Martin! Jim, let him go! Jim!!»

Jim only stopped when he heard Lee's voice.

He looked up, leaning back, panting, blood on his shirt, and he realized Lee was standing there, glaring at him, covering Barbara Lee's eyes. Jim felt something heavy and deep, twist within his stomach. There was something deeply wrong about all of this. He looked down. Martin wasn't smiling anymore, he looked scared.

Jim looked around and he saw that there was a huge stain of red on the carpet, and next to it... a small bucket, knocked over, red clearly spilling out. Jim continued to scan the room, following the natural sequence with which the following objects revealed themselves to him, bringing up the truth along with them. Next to that, on the coffee table, a few other buckets of different colors. Brushes, a jar of water, big sheets of paper, a cardboard box which appeared to have been crudely opened. The knife on the floor.

Jim frowned and looked back up at Lee. He finally understood the connection between all of those things – quite the detective he was – and he could tell from Lee's expression that she knew he understood too now. This didn't make her look less upset.

Jim looked down at Martin, and begun to stand up.

Martin sat up and he touched his nose, stopping to look at the blood now on his hand.

Lee let go of Barbara and walked over. Jim opened his mouth as if to speak, but Lee surprised him by ignoring him and kneeling next to Martin.

«Are you alright?» she asked.

Then, she went into doctor mode, and a moment later she had Martin standing on his feet and ready to follow her to the bathroom where their first aid kit was.

Jim looked down at the mess before him.

«Is that paint?» Jim asked while his wife left the room.

«Yes. It was Martin's idea. He said that painting is a good way to express your emotions and plus it's fun.»

Jim nodded slowly.

«He brought the paint in here.»

Barbara nodded.

«But I wasn't careful and I spilled the red one. Mom said I should have waited for her help to open it but I didn't... I'm sorry. Please, don't blame Martin for this mess, it was me. I ruined the carpet.»

Jim almost started crying. His child, innocent as she was, really thought he had begun to beat the shit out of Martin over some spilled paint and a stupid carpet.

«And he opened the cardboard box with the knife?»

Barbara Lee nodded again.

Jim smiled, his lower lip trembling, but he was hoping if he stretched it wide enough into a smile, it wouldn't be noticeable.

He still wasn't sure what the fuck Martin was doing in his house, but he knew now that he had to be careful or he would incur the risk of painting himself as the villain.

It hit him right now, while he helped his daughter clean up, what kind of mess he had gotten into.

That's what they had been doing. They were going to make him the bad guy, that was it.

He thought about it, and he saw really no way out.

Reasonably, there was no way he could get out of it. He couldn't tell Lee the truth about Martin. He couldn't tell her his suspicions about him, or his involvement with Nygma, without mentioning why he had reason to think that. And said reason was that all of this had been one big scheme to frame him and both Martin and Nygma, and Oswald too, now that he was thinking about it, were all working with Tetch. But that would have meant mentioning how he knew that Tetch was involved, and so telling her about that guy who Tetch hypnotized to serve as his puppet, and if he said that, he would reveal that those six people weren't dead and that they had only made them believe that they were.

Because if he told Lee that, something bad would happen to her, and he didn't yet know what, but he really didn't want to find out.

His entire world came crashing down over his shoulders and he felt like he couldn't breathe.

 

Lee led Martin to the bathroom and immediately reached for the kit. She took out disinfectant and poured some on a piece of cotton wool, then started to clean up Martin's face. He flinched away and she stopped, giving him a reassuring look. He tried to stay still from there on, so that Lee could continue.

After she was done, she took a good look at his nose.

«Thankfully, nothing broken.» she paused, then looked at him in the eyes, «I'm so sorry.»

Martin went to take his notepad, but he realized it was all drenched, both in paint and in blood. He sighed.

«You don't need to say anything. I-... Jim stepped out of line. I don't know what's wrong with him lately, he keeps doing these things...»

Martin got her attention by touching her shoulder. When she looked again she saw that he was smiling understandingly. She couldn't help but smile back and she nodded, taking a deep breath.

«Sorry. After everything you said about Jim, and he did this... I think I was wrong, I don't know how he feels about you, but I don't think he trusts you.»

Martin took his notepad and he started turning page after page, getting increasingly frustrated until he found a somewhat clean one and started writing. Lee watched the whole thing anxiously.

«I understand. He gave up on me, I'm a fuck-up. I'm sorry I bothered your family.»

Lee gasped when she read that. She immediately looked back into his eyes and grabbed him by the shoulders.

«Don't say that about yourself, of course you are not a fuck-up! Look... Jim isn't the ultimate authority on people's value. You are a good man, Martin. You deserve better.»

Martin felt his heart swell up when he heard her say those words.

Now, those were words he believed in.

He wasn't a bad person just because of his unfortunate circumstances, and he deserved so much better than what he got.

 

Jim took a few deep breaths and he calmed down. It wasn't all over. He still needed to get Martin out of their house and out of their lives, but how? Lee believed him a victim.

And yet, he could still mention Martin's involvement with the Riddler – Jim considered for a moment. Lee too knew that they were related, it wouldn't be that big of a stretch to believe, but if Lee had asked for evidence, Jim would have fuck all to show her.

When Lee, and Martin right behind her, walked back into the room, Martin quickly excused himself and left.

Jim and his family where left alone.

Lee gestured for Jim to follow her and they walked to the bedroom. She closed the door behind them, then turned to Jim and spoke.

«What the fuck is wrong with you?»

Strong start, admittedly. But understandable.

«I haven't seen you like this in years. All of this... _darkness_... I don't even know what else to call it. Where does it come from? Jim? What's going on?»

She sounded genuinely concerned, as much as she sounded frustrated and in pain.

Jim would have loved to tell her all the truth right now, but he reminded himself that he couldn't.

«I'm sorry, Lee. It's just the work... it's been weighting a lot on me, lately.»

Lee sighed, crossing her arms.

«Why didn't you retire when you had the chance, then? You said you wanted to.»

Jim thought about it. It was true. In retrospect, maybe he should have, although, he wasn't sure that would have changed much of what had happened in those last few days.

He shrugged.

«I couldn't now even if I wanted to. Not until I've solved this case.»

 

Martin walked out of the building and he started walking away. His nose hurt. He smiled to himself.

He took out his phone and he typed a text message.

«It's time for the next step.» 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't remember if i have specific notes about this chapter but i keep forgetting to say this, so here
> 
> i don't know what the state of Gotham would be after those ten years. of course there is still crime, wacky villains ('cos it's Gotham City. it's just how it is) and i'm not super familiar with Batman canon either
> 
> so i just decided to assume that the various gangs took over, but since the big mafia families are gone, Oswald was in jail, and Barbara gave up that life, there's no one left to truly "rule", so, i asked myself how could Oswald take back his previous position? the first chapter is the answer i gave myself :)


	4. And The Other Shoe Drops

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lee and Jim have a little confrontation. Martin gets what he wants. Jim gets to meet an old acquaintance of his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oswald and Ed return in this one! I promise from now on they will come back as more prominent characters :)
> 
> ...

Jim was feeling much better now, despite everything. He had been able to finally sleep even if just for a few hours and he had taken a shower, which was all he needed to let his body recharge. Now he finally had all the energy he needed to focus on being utterly miserable and bitter.

He hadn't been able to stop thinking about it. How could he have?

When he was done drying up his hair, he put on some fresh comfortable clothes and walked to the living-room. Barbara Lee had gotten really busy and every surface was covered in paint-plastered paper sheets in various states of drying. She was in the process of making a new one now too.

He sort of sighed, sort of smiled. The paint thing reminded him of Martin, which he wasn't happy about, but if there was a positive side to all of this, at least his daughter seemed to have found a new hobby and she was happy about it.

Jim was about to walk to the kitchen, when his phone rang. He went to take it out of the pocket of his coat and answered.

«Jim Gordon.» he mindlessly huffed into the device.

«Jim, we got Tetch!» Harvey's excited voice replied. It took Jim a moment to respond.

«What? How?»

Goes without saying that he was beyond surprised by that news.

«We got lucky. Got an anonymous tip on his whereabouts. We got there, and sure enough, there he was! And we took precautions, nobody got hypnotized.»

Jim's heart skipped a beat. This meant... was he finally free to tell Lee the truth? Whatever menace had been lurking in the shadows, he was sure it had been contained along with Tetch. He smiled into the phone.

«Great job, Harvey. Thanks for telling me.»

He closed the phone and walked to the kitchen. He saw his wife standing with her back to him. She was busy making dinner – damn, was it already dinner time? He felt like he had been floating, time made no sense to him anymore. He guessed that's what being awake for two days straight does to you, but anyway. He had to tell her, he needed her to know. Maybe it wouldn't change a thing about how she felt about him, but he had to be honest, and maybe it would at least alleviate her guilt.

«Lee, there's something you need to know about the case. We got who was responsible.»

He said while he approached her, and she paused her work – she was chopping up vegetables – and turned partially to him with raised eyebrows. He didn't wait for a response and continued.

«It was Tetch, he faked all of it. Those people didn't die, they escaped somehow, they were hypnotized.»

He waited with a half smile on his face. Lee turned her back on him without responding at all.

Jim wondered if she'd heard what he said, or if she fully understood.

«Lee? They didn't die. It was all a set-up to make us believe I killed those people.»

Lee's grip on the knife tightened.

«...Lee?»

Jim's eyes flickered in between Lee's hand around the tool and her stiff shoulders, then she turned around. Her eyes looked empty and she came at him with the knife still firmly held in her hand.

«Lee!?»

Jim dodged her attack, but she didn't stop and immediately took another swing, barely missing his face.

«What the fuck?» Jim muttered under his breath, while he ducked to avoid another swing.

«Lee, are you in there? Stop!»

He had realized by now that this wasn't her. She must have been already hypnotized, only waiting for him to say the right words, just like that man at the precinct. He felt like an idiot for not seeing this coming. Curse Jervis Tetch and his supernatural ability to fuck with people's minds. This must have been part of the plan all along too. Those assholes were always two steps ahead of him, no matter what he did.

He though about this while he jumped backwards, miraculously avoiding getting stabbed right in the stomach. This had to stop.

Jim ran around the table and paused. Lee walked around it too. All Jim needed was to put some distance between them. He grabbed a plate and threw it at Lee's hand. It hit her, then fell and broke in a hundred pieced on the floor. The surprise and the pain in her wrist made her drop the knife. Jim was quick to use this window before she could pick it up to run back to her and tackle her to the floor, but not before he had kicked the knife away as a safety measure. Lee struggled to get out of his hold.

«Lee, listen to me! This isn't you!»

She didn't budge. Before he could do anything, Lee kicked him in the crotch. That hurt. A lot. Jim was distracted enough by the shock and the pain that Lee was able to free one of her hands and she grabbed a piece of the broken plate. It was sharp enough that it sliced through the palm of her hand, making her blood run down her arm while Jim struggled to keep her hand away from his throat.

While he kept pushing her away, he quickly scanned the room for anything useful. He saw a glass bottle on the table and he reached for it. It was so close, he almost got it, almost... and he finally managed to grab it. Before he could think or before Lee could do anything, he slammed the bottle on her head, knocking her out. The bottle didn't break, but he had hit his wife hard enough to make her bleed a little. Jim immediately dropped the bottle, which rolled away on the floor, and he lowered himself down to Lee's level to gently touch her face and check up on her.

He was so worried about Lee's state that he only now realized they weren't alone anymore in the kitchen.

He looked up and there was Barbara Lee, standing at the entrance of the room, one of her drawings in one hand, her mouth semi-opened.

Fuck. How long had she been there? And even if she hadn't been there all along, this sight wasn't the best for a child to see. He cursed himself for not thinking that all the noise from their fight would attract his child.

«Barbara...»

He called her while starting to stand up, trying to sound and look reassuring, but undoubtedly making a shitty job of it, because the next second, Barbara Lee was bolting for the door.

«Barbara, wait!»

He quickly stood up and followed her outside. By the time he got in front of the elevator, the doors were already closing. He decided to go for the stairs and he ran as fast as he ever could.

When he finally reached the end, he was out of breath and the scene before him didn't do much good for him either.

Barbara Lee was standing in the hall, hugging none other that Martin, who had his arms protectively wrapped around her. Martin shot him a look. Jim thought he saw him smile, but it was there only for a second and then it was gone, so he couldn't be sure.

«Shh... shh... it's alright. You are safe now.» he was telling his daughter.

«Get away from my daughter, you-»

Jim begun, stepping towards them, but to his surprise, Barbara flinched away and hid even deeper into Martin's arms. She had to be terrified. His own daughter was so scared of him that she would rather hide in the arms of a man she barely knew. Jim had never felt like he had let his daughter down like this before. He felt like a failure. As a father, and as a detective for not being able to stop this in time.

He stopped in his place, since he couldn't get any closer. He opened his mouth and then closed it, trying to choose the right words, but he wasn't sure there were any.

«What are you doing here?»

He decided to ask. Seemed safe enough. It was directed at the other adult, not at the frightened child currently hiding from him, so he was bound to get an answer. And he really wanted one. He sounded more hostile than he probably needed to, given the circumstances, but he couldn't help it. His hatred for that man kept growing every second, and had his daughter not been in the way, he would have most certainly punched him.

Martin delicately let go of the child, giving her a look to tell her it was okay, and she went and hid behind him, clinging to his sweater for safety. Then he used his hands so sign.

«I got home, then after a while I realized I couldn't find my wallet and so I came back for it. Then I ran into Barbara.»

Jim didn't look convinced by his story, because he wasn't.

Anyhow, he didn't have time for this right now. He took out his phone and called an ambulance, without ever breaking eye-contact with the other man. Then he called Harvey.

«You. Come with me. My wife is hurt, I gotta go to her, but I'm not leaving you alone with Barbara Lee.»

«No... I don't want to go back there. Is mom really hurt?» the child asked. She was asking Martin. Jim sighed.

Martin looked at Jim for an answer.

«She is going to be fine, I promise. She is just...» Jim didn't even know what to say.

He wasn't lying, Lee was going to be fine, for sure, but how could he explain everything that happened and why it happened to his child?

Luckily, Martin agreed to come with, and both of them waited outside the door while Jim checked up on Lee. She was still unconscious. While he walked past the couch, Jim noticed something. He picked it up, it was a wallet. He looked at Martin across the room and frowned.

«Oh, there it is.» Martin said, casually. Jim dropped his shoulders in resignation.

 

After a while, Barbara Kean arrived, and for the first time since all of that mess had happened, Jim saw Barbara Lee leave Martin's side to run to her mom.

Barbara hugged her child, then looked at Jim, noticing he was keeping his distance, and she asked.

«What happened?»

She was asking Jim, judging by her tone and volume of voice, but before Jim could get a word in, Barbara Lee interjected.

«Dad hurt Lee.» the child sounded like she was about to start crying. Considering everything, Jim was surprised she hadn't cried more already. She was a brave little girl, she didn't deserve to go through all of this. Jim knew who was to blame. He pondered this while his eyes moved to Martin, who was standing there, too close to his daughter for Jim's comfort.

He had no doubt now that he was involved in this. It couldn't be yet another “coincidence” that he had shown up when he had. Yet, Jim still had no actual proof, despite how obvious the truth was to see... and without evidence, he couldn't bring him to justice.

Then, Jim remembered. He actually had something, or rather, _someone_.

Harvey arrived just in time. The paramedics had placed Lee in the ambulance and were about to leave. Barbara was still trying to console her daughter, and discussing the situation with Martin, the only other person Barbara Lee would let anywhere near her, besides her own mom.

«What the hell is going on? Was that Lee?! Is she alright?»

Those were a lot of questions to ask at once, but Harvey had every right to ask them. Jim hadn't been able to tell him much when he had called him, since his traumatized daughter had been standing right there at the time.

Jim took Harvey by his shoulder and pulled him closer, slightly leaning away from other people.

«I've been set up, Harvey. Tetch had already gotten to Lee before this even started. When I told her the truth she tried to kill me. This was all a set-up from the start, Tetch's arrest too. He wanted me to feel safe, so I would tell her, and so this could happen.»

Jim shook his head while he spoke. He still couldn't believe they had gotten him so easily.

Harvey looked confused. Of course, he understood everything, but at the same time, Jim realized it was a lot of information to process all at once, so he didn't blame him.

«Tetch did all of this? But why?»

That was the right question, and luckily – or maybe sadly, all considered – Jim knew the answer.

«Look at Barbara Lee. She was there, saw the whole thing. She is terrified of me now, and who did she ran to?»

He nodded in the direction of the subject of his hatred, and Harvey quickly glanced at him too, before turning back to Jim.

«Martin?» he asked, sounding incredulous. Jim nodded.

«What was he even doing here?»

«Said he forgot his wallet. Which actually was in my house, for the record. Except, I doubt he “forgot” it.»

Harvey nodded slowly, putting together the pieces.

«So you were right, he really is in on all of this.»

Jim shook his head, confusing Harvey for a second, until he spoke again.

«I'm starting to think he's done a little more than just be involved...»

«You think he's the mind behind all of this? That's... a lot, Jim. This feels more like something Ny-»

«Nygma would do.» Jim interrupted him, and the detective nodded.

«Yeah, well. Don't forget who his father is. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.»

Harvey scoffed, like he was only now truly starting to realize all the cascading implications of this.

«They aren't even related!» he sounded a little more than frustrated. Jim shrugged in response.

«Doesn't really matter. They are all made of the same cloth, I should have known. Those three are all meant for each other.»

Those “three”, obviously being Martin, Edward, and Oswald - Jim hadn't forgotten about the latter either.

After this, Jim only had a short time to quickly tell Barbara everything that happened with Lee and letting her know about Tetch's role in all of it. Then, they all went their own separate ways.

Barbara Lee needed to be away from him for a while and he wasn't sure how long it would take for her to begin trusting him again. He couldn't imagine how the child might have been feeling. To walk in to find your dad beating his wife unconscious... without an explanation... but he was sure Kean would find the way to tell her the truth and get her to understand, somehow. He had to hope she would.

 

Once Barbara and her daughter were alone at home, she thought it the right moment to try to unpack those events.

She watched her daughter eat ice-cream and smiled at her. Yes, it was kind of cheap tactic, but a bit of a sweet treat could make the kid feel better, it was already working, she could tell.

«So... want to tell me what happened?»

Barbara Lee stared down at her ice-cream, then shook her head and continued eating it.

Barbara sighed.

«You know, what you saw... there's an explanation for that. Normally, I wouldn't justify a man's actions when he gets violent with his wife, but this time, Jim really had a reason.»

Barbara Lee looked up at her with a confused look on her face.

«See, there is this very bad man, who has this ability to control people's minds. He made Lee attack Jim, so he had to defend himself. The only way to break that mind-control was to knock her out. He didn't mean to do that, he would never hurt Lee, or you, or anyone. He loves you very much and he was very sad that you had to see all of that.»

She calmly explained. She could see her daughter's brain already working to process all this new information and after a few moments, she seemed to already have readjusted to this new truth.

«He did it because he had to, because otherwise Lee was going to hurt him.»

She stated, more to herself than to anyone else. Part of the process to accept that as the truth.

Her mom nodded and then waited.

They sat in silence while Barbara Lee ate her ice-cream, until she broke the silence with such an unexpected question that it shocked Barbara – and she wasn't one easy to shock.

«Mom... Is dad a bad person?»

 

As Martin walked down the street, he fixed his bowler hat on his head and he straightened his tie.

He looked around and he was in such a good mood that even a dump like the Narrows looked brighter to him today.

He reached the hide-out his fathers had been using and he walked inside. It was one of the nicest apartments they could find, repurposed and redecorated with new, nicer furniture. Not the height of luxury, but quite comfortable, and way fancier than anything anyone around those parts had ever seen.

Two big burly guys stood in protection at the door, but as soon as they saw Martin's commanding expression they moved aside. In response, Martin momentarily raised his hat with a quick smile and he walked in.

Immediately, he was greeted by Oswald who stood up from the dinner table and walked up to him as quickly as he could – after getting his braces fixed, he didn't limp as much as he used to, but that unmistakable waddle was still there.

«Martin!» he was greeted by his father, who wrapped his arms around him.

When he pulled back, Martin noticed that Ed was standing close too, smiling.

«Tell us everything!» Oswald demanded excitedly.

 

Barbara blinked helplessly at that question.

«No, of course not. Why would you think that?»

Barbara Lee seemed thoughtful for a moment.

«Even if he let six people die to save mom?»

At that question, Barbara's eyebrows shot even higher than they had before. She was genuinely left speechless.

«No, of course not, that wasn't... Sweetie, where did you hear about that, anyway?»

Barbara was already fuming. That was such a horrifying story, she wouldn't have let anyone get her daughter involved in that. That was the reason she had left her criminal life behind. She wanted her daughter to have a chance to live a normal life, she couldn't believe Jim had told her about people dying so horrifically. Or had it been Lee? No, that didn't sound more plausible at all. She was sure neither of them would ever disclose such gruesome details with a child.

Barbara Lee shrugged.

«Martin mentioned it once.»

«Martin!?»

Barbara leaned back and stared at nothing for a moment while she processed this information with a deep frown and her mouth opened in shock. She would have to have a few stern words with that boy. She couldn't believe that guy would tell Barbara Lee that her dad had killed six innocent people. How did he know about that, anyway? All the details about that hadn't even been disclosed to the public... _Unless_...?

Barbara closed her mouth and her frown deepened even further. Had she judged him all wrong? She had noticed Jim seemed not to trust this man from the beginning, but he always seemed so nice and he had saved their daughter, hadn't he?

Barbara was forced to face the fact that she had always seemed “nice” too, until she had killed her parents, kidnapped Lee and tried to kill her multiple times. All that was past them now, of course, but her point was that sometimes maybe judging someone from their appearance and demeanor wasn't the best choice.

She realized that Jim probably hadn't told her the entire story either. She needed to talk to him, to let him know what she had just found out, and to hear what Jim had to say about Martin.

If she had connected all the dots right, there was much more to that man than he would have led them to believe.

 

Jim swung the isolation cell open and stormed inside. Jervis didn't even have the time to smile and say some bullshit in rhyme before Jim grabbed him by the collar of his black and white striped jumpsuit.

«I know you think this is a game, but I'm not playing anymore. Tell me who you have been working with, or I swear to God...»

Jim's threats didn't seem to really affect him. Jervis just smiled slyly at him, which only served to piss Jim off even more.

«You won't collaborate? Alright then.»

Before Tetch could open his mouth to actually speak, Jim punched him square in the face. The inmate groaned and frowned, while a blood slowly started dripping from his nose.

«Go on, Jim, be the monster they all think you to be, but violence won't bring back your dear Barbara Lee.»

Jim paused and glared at him.

«That was your plan all along, wasn't it? You wanted her to hate me!»

«Turning her against you was as easy as pie, now all that's left for you to do is cry.»

Tetch's big shit eating grin as he said those words would have been enough for Jim to give in and smash his face, but he took a deep breath instead. Tetch was right, he already was a monster in his family's eyes, he didn't need to further convince them of it with pointless violence.

«I know you have been working with Martin.»

Jervis' mouth took a round shape and he raised his eyebrows, feigning surprise in a comedic fashion.

«This is the first time I hear that name, why, already looking for someone else to blame? All your misfortunes have been self-inflicted, it's the price you pay for the innocents you've convicted.»

Jim's eyebrows shot up and so did Jervis' and his grin died out a little.

«The innocents I convicted? That has nothing to do with you and your sister. You are talking about Oswald and Nygma, aren't you? So you admit it, you have been working with them!»

Jervis realized his mistake and Jim could tell he had begun to panic a little. As made even cleared by the fact that he sounded like he was scrambling to find the next rhyme.

«If you have angered that many the fault is not mine, have you considered such punishment might be... from the divine?»

That didn't sound right even to Tetch himself and he almost looked disappointed at his own words.

Jim dropped him, forcing him to sit in his chair, and stood towering over him in an attempt to intimidate him.

«You were so willing to help them that you let yourself get locked up? Do you really want revenge that bad, or... was this part of the plan too? You think someone is going to break you out of here?»

Jim scoffed at the idea. He would get him to talk, one way or another. Maybe pissing him off or doubting the validity of his schemes could be the way.

«I assure you I won't be in here much longer. No matter what you say, my loyalty will be stronger.»

And there was that stupid grin again.

Jim sighed. If that didn't seem to work, then-

«Okay, you know what? I need to get that confession out of you. You want me to be a monster? I'll show you the monster.»

While he said this, Jim prepared to punch him again, but he guessed the look on his face was enough to convince Jervis that he meant it, because his demeanor suddenly changed.

«Go after the Riddler, put Penguin away!»

Tetch squealed, pulling away from his grip and closing his eyes, bracing for impact. Then, realizing the punch wasn't coming, he opened one eye and finished the rhyme.

«But Martin is the one friend I refuse to betray.»

Jim let him go and stared at him. Tetch didn't look happy about the results of this conversation, it's obvious he was expecting to have the upper hand all the way to the end, but he had just admitted in some convoluted way that all three of those men were involved.

This would hardly hold as a proper confession in a court, since it would be considered coerced, but for Jim's purposes, this was good enough. Now his accusations had at least one leg to stand on, and with Tetch in Arkham, he was now free to talk openly to Lee and tell her everything, finally.

Of course, now that he knew that someone braking Jervis Tetch out of there was a possibility, he would have to ask to at least double the security, but he felt like he was on the right track to get to the bottom of this.

 

Edward let out a wholehearted laugh at the though of Jim suffering. Martin had painted a beautiful picture in his and Oswald's mind, of Jim looking lost and desperate, and the little girl refusing to look at her own dad in the eyes.

Oswald smiled warmly and patted his son on the shoulder.

«Good job, Martin. Your plan has worked exactly how you had predicted, down to the smallest detail.»

Martin couldn't help but feel a bit flustered at the praise. It felt good to be doing this with his family, it felt good to have been right, and it felt good to be so close to victory.

«It wouldn't have worked without your help.» he signed.

Oswald shook his head.

«No, don't give us more credit than it's due. This was all you. We are both very proud of you.» he added.

Martin smiled brightly at him. He felt a warmth in his chest that would have been hard to explain. Sharing the details of the result of his latest scheme with his dads, while having dinner together as a family, it almost didn't feel real. It was just beautiful. It felt right. For the first time in his life, he truly felt like he was where he belonged. And he was loved.

«Shall we move to the last phase, then?»

Edward asked, getting his attention.

Martin nodded while his lips stretched into an amused grin. Edward copied his expression and laughed again.

Oswald reached for Martin's hand on the table and squeezed it, smiling proudly at him.

«All that's left to do, is to put him out of his misery.»

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Also, no, i'm still not used to writing in rhyme, i'm cringing as we speak, thanks!
> 
> ALSO, another note on the subject, but i almost lost my fucking mind the night before posting this, because i suddenly got paranoid that Jervis doesn't actually compulsively speak in rhyme, but i was reassured that that does in fact happen in canon, and i didn't just imagine it (like, i remember very clearly a scene where Jim forces him to answer a question by tricking him into finishing a rhyme or something, that's what i was think about while i wrote this).
> 
> I almost had a mental breakdown over this, but worry not, crisis averted, i'm fine now. All is well. :)


	5. Jim's Regrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jim runs into an old friend. Lee and Jim have a heart-to-hearth. Barbara has a concerning epiphany.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual, forgive typos and misspellings, but let me know about them, please! Also, this chapter is noticeably shorter than the others.

Jim found himself once again in the same apartment complex he'd visited recently. Before he could go up the stairs, his phone rang.

It was the hospital. Lee was awake. She was fine. Jim sighed in relief, but he couldn't go to her yet.

He was there for a reason, and he wouldn't leave.

He was going to finally confront Martin. No secrets, no bullshit. He knew Martin was responsible for everything now, he had Tetch's confession to back him up.

Martin couldn't run or lie his way out of it, this time.

Jim reached the door and he knocked.

He waited, but nothing happened.

«GCPD, open this door right now.»

Still no answer.

Jim started to think maybe Martin wasn't there, and he could have left, just like last time, and he could have gone through all the hoops to get a warrant to search his house, but he knew what he had wasn't enough and even if it had been, it would have taken too much time.

His family had already been endangered multiple times in the span of so few days, he wasn't gonna sit there and wait any longer for this bastard to put them all in danger once more.

Not this time. Jim took a step back, then kicked the door open.

He rushed in, gun at the ready, but the place actually seemed empty. Martin wasn't there, and by the looks of it, he hadn't been in a while too.

Jim lowered his gun and started scanning the room for anything that could help him. He opened drawers, searched cabinets, but he found nothing.

Extremely disappointed, Jim was forced to give up.

Wherever Martin had been hiding, clearly this wasn't it, and there was no evidence of any sorts that could conclusively tie him to everything that happened to his wife and daughter, or to Riddler or Penguin.

This really had been a hole in the water.

Dropping his shoulders in resignation, Jim turned back and decided it was time to finally go to the hospital and confront Lee once more, now that she would finally be able to listen – and Jim so hoped she would be willing to. He had so much to tell her.

 

Walking down a corridor of the hospital, Jim was surprised to come across a tall black-haired man.

«Bruce?»

Jim called him, and Bruce turned around.

«Hi, Jim. I heard that Lee was in here, I had to stop by.»

Jim nodded.

«Of course. Thank you.»

Bruce gave him a look like he'd been studying him, but at the same time, like he'd already figured him all out. Jim felt almost uncomfortable for a moment.

«What really happened?» Bruce asked.

Jim became suddenly acutely aware of all the weight he had been carrying on his shoulders. Especially as he looked at this young man, and by contrast, he became even more away of how years and misadventures had aged him. It wouldn't hurt to share a bit of the burden, for once.

 

Bruce seemed particularly touched by Jim's story, but he didn't comment much on it. Jim wondered if he had shared too many details, but he couldn't help it.

There was just something about that man that led him to trust him about this kind of thing. Maybe because he'd known him ever since he was a boy. Maybe because in the few years they had spent side by side, they had faced many similar situations together already. So, even if he was now a grown up and even if he hadn't seen or heard from him in years until very recently, it was easy to fall back into a familiar pattern with him.

As Jim reflected on this, he was about to approach the room where he knew Lee was in, but his phone rang again.

«Jim Gordon.» he tiredly answered, out of habit.

He'd recognized Barbara's number on the screen, and this really wasn't the time, but he couldn't help but worry that it could be something about his daughter, and if that was the case, he had to hear it.

«Jim, you need to tell me everything you know about Martin.»

Jim's brow furrowed slightly, wondering why she would ask something like that, all of sudden.

«Why?»

He heard a huff, then a pause.

«I think he's been up to something.»

Despite the situation, some part of Jim's brain wanted him to laugh. Come, on, it was funny. All he had been trying to figure out on his own, all the times he had warned people not to trust Martin, and now Barbara came out of nowhere with a statement like that? In lighter circumstances he would have actually let himself laugh.

Instead, he sighed.

«Yeah, you could say that.»

«What do you mean?» Barbara asked.

«Is there a reason you called?»

«Yeah. Apparently, he told Barbara Lee about the six people who died, and he seems to know more details than he should... How's that possible?»

Jim grimaced, trying to contain his anger, but then his demeanor changed when he realized what that meant.

«If he knows details we haven't shared with the press, the only way he could know is if he was involved.»

This could be a break-through, finally. Something Jim could latch on to bring him down.

«...Yeah? That's what I was implying. Jim? Tell me what's going on, ple-»

«Thank you, Barbara, I'll call you back.»

«Jim, wai-»

He hang up. Barbara couldn't know how relieved he was and how happy she had made him with that simple information. He would have to think about how fucked up it was that Martin had brought up such a subject with a child, but for now, he chose to focus on the positives.

 

Finally, nothing else standing in his way, Jim was ready to see Lee.

He walked into the room, approaching her bed with circumspection. He immediately noticed a beautiful bouquet of flowers and he had to guess those were from Bruce.

He had no way to predict how Lee would react to seeing him. After all, they hadn't been on the best terms lately, and last time they had seen each other it hadn't ended well either – sure, she was under Tetch's control, but still. He had hit her in the head with a bottle.

As soon as Lee noticed him, he saw her eyes get bigger and watery.

He recognized the emotion in her reaction and he spontaneously ran to her, hugging her tightly, throwing all of his previous worries out the window.

«Oh my god, Jim, are you alright?»

He nodded against his shoulder. She hugged back and didn't seem to want to let go. Jim couldn't blame her, he felt the same way.

After a while they did pull back and he had a chance to look at her in the eyes again.

«I'm so sorry... I've been told what happened. Jim, I... I'm so sorry. I could have hurt you, I-»

«Shhh... It's not your fault, Lee. You had no control. We are both fine, it's what matters.»

She smiled weakly. He, instead, reached to remove a loose strand of hair from her forehead, and seized the occasion to take a better look at her bandaged temple, careful not to brush his fingers against it, worried about hurting her.

«You _are_ fine, right?» he asked, referring to her injuries.

His eyes shifted to her bandaged hand as well, wondering how much that must hurt too.

«Yeah. I'm doing okay.»

Jim felt relieved to hear that, but he couldn't help but feel like things still weren't right between them.

«I'm sorry I hurt you. I hate seeing you like this.»

He said, gesturing at her bandages, and more generically at her hospital bed.

«No, it's not your fault. There was nothing else you could do, I was going to kill you.»

Both smiled sadly at that recollection. Not that Lee could actually remember much.

«The last thing I remember was... I was cooking, then you came in, and you started talking. You were saying something about the case? About my kidnapping?»

Jim was surprised she brought up the subject first.

Which was just as well, because despite himself, that's exactly what Jim meant to talk about anyway.

«Yeah. I was telling you that we found out who is responsible. Actually, a lot more has happened in the meantime, I should catch you up on all of it. But the point of it is, those people didn't die. Tetch hypnotized them, set me up, and they escaped somehow. I've met one of them.»

Lee's jaw dropped, then, little by little, her eyes begun to fill up with tears.

«My god... those people didn't die. Nobody died because of me.»

Those words hurt to hear, but he was expecting them. Just as he suspected, she had been blaming herself.

Jim nodded and smiled, and reached for her face to stroke her cheek, but she imperceptibly pulled away, and he stopped in his tracks, dropping his hand back by his side. His smile dropped too.

«You still chose to kill them. I _implored_ you to save them, but you didn't even try.»

There it was. He had been expecting this too. It didn't mean he found himself more prepared.

«You didn't know it was fake, you were willing to let them die.»

Her voice was full of emotion, but surprisingly firm. Jim stayed quiet and listened. It was the least he could do.

«I asked you not to put my life above that of six other people and you... you didn't even listen.»

Jim felt it again, that ache in his bones, in his hearth.

«Yeah... I've made a lot of wrong choices. I have before, and I will make more in the future. But if I were there again, I would make the same choice again. I know it was selfish of me, but I couldn't bear to lose you. To stand there and just watch you _die_.»

Jim looked away. He caught a glance of her lip trembling, but he couldn't look at her anymore.

«Don't think this hasn't been eating me up inside ever since... but I can't imagine a world without you in it, Lee. I... I just can't.»

He was almost startled and he finally looked back when Lee took his hand and squeezed it. He saw the smile on her face. Such a compassionate expression. He knew it was a lot and that it wouldn't be so easy to forgive, and yet, there she was, smiling at him to make him feel better, to let him know that she would be there for him.

They looked into each other's eyes for a while, neither of them could have been able to tell when they had both started silently crying, and yet, here they were.

After a while, Jim broke the silence again.

«I'm sorry for putting you through all this. Not just this, here, but, all of it. It's all on me.»

Lee frowned.

«No, Jim, it's not your fault. How could it be?»

Oh, she had no idea.

Jim let out a deep sigh and he grabbed a chair, pulling it closer and dropping tiredly in it.

«Tetch, that fucked up game, your kidnapping at the party, all of it... it was Martin behind it.»

«What?» that was the only thing Lee could muster. She scooted back, straightening her back and leaning forward a little.

«Not just that. The gangs, the robberies? He's been working with Nygma and Cobblepot, it was all part of a big scheme.»

Lee inhaled slowly, giving herself time to think that over.

«How can you be sure?» she sounded like she didn't want to believe it.

«Tetch confessed it to me.»

She gasped.

«I let him into our home... I let him hang out with Barbara!»

Now the outrage had replaced the shock and disbelief. Jim understood those feelings all too well and he communicated it with a simple look.

«I know. Don't feel bad that he fooled you, he knew exactly what he was doing, he wanted you both to see me as the bad guy, and him as the innocent victim.»

Lee shook her head, still trying to piece it all together and figure out if there had been any signs that she could have noticed, besides the fact that she had completely ignored her husband's warnings.

«This is why this is my fault. This is retribution for what I did.» Jim sounded angry.

He knew he had done the right thing back then, he had to believe it. And yet, after all of this, he was beginning to doubt it. There was no way he could predict this outcome. All he wanted was to give the boy a chance to have a more normal life. If he had known the resentful criminal mastermind he would become, maybe he wouldn't have done what he'd done. Maybe this was his fault because _he_ had made him what he was today.

But once again, Jim had to admit, this was another choice that no matter how wrong it looked in hindsight, if he were back there he would have done the exact same thing again and again. He knew that was the thing to do. Putting Oswald in Blackgate, putting Nygma in Arkham, and young little Martin back in a orphanage.

He had to believe it was the right thing to do, he had spent years convincing himself of it.

Lee scoffed.

«Martin said he had finally realized what you had tried to do for him, he even said that he considered you a father figure. The only one he'd ever had. I suppose that was all a lie too.»

She sounded to hurt, betrayed and disappointed. Jim smiled weakly at her and squeezed her hand a bit tighter.

«Yeah... all he does is lie.»

Jim had to reflect on the most recent developments.

He now had a way to connect Martin with the rest of the picture, thanks to Jervis' confession and thanks to what Barbara told him, but he had to find him first, and he still had no way to do that.

He seemed to have left his apartment, but Jim had no idea where he could be. He figured he had to be hiding somewhere, but how was he supposed to tell where?

Lee seemed to space out for a moment, before turning to Jim again with newfound fervor.

«Where is Barbara Lee?»

«She is with Barbara. Don't worry about her. She was pretty shaken by what happened, but she is a strong girl. She will be fine.»

He smiled, giving it his best shot to be reassuring. He guessed it worked, because he saw Lee relax a little.

He stood up and he leaned down, gently pulling her head closer. She closed her eyes, letting herself be cradled, and he placed a kiss on her forehead.

 

In the meantime, Barbara had gotten herself busy. Since Jim refused to be helpful, she thought it would be up to her to be the useful one instead, and she called Harvey, making him tell her everything they knew about this case and everything he knew about Martin as well.

Once she learned Martin's true story, it didn't take too long for her to finish connecting the remaining dots.

She begun to realize, this plan, this pattern, felt oddly familiar. In fact, it closely resembled a similar plot to take someone down, in which she had taken part herself, over then years ago.

It all came flowing back. When she had allied herself up with Edward in an attempt to get rid of Oswald.

Taking everything he held dear, stripping him of everything he had, until he had nothing and he was nothing, and then... Oh, no.

Barbara realized she might know what the next step might be.

She had to warn Jim, he could be in serious danger.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, like i said, this one is shorter than the other ones... odd tbh. I don't know why it turned out like this lmao
> 
> I could have rearranged stuff to make them all the same, but it didn't feel right, idk. So this one is just short. The next will be much longer, tho.
> 
> Also, get ready for the grand return on the scene of Edward and Oswald ;)


	6. Time to make it right, Jim Gordon.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Martin gets in trouble. Oswald and Ed go to the rescue. A certain caped vigilante shows up to kick some ass. Jim has to make a decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, final chapter already! This one was one of the most fun to write, but at the same time the one that took me longer to write, for some reason. It's also longer than the previous ones, but i don't think that has nothing to do with it. I guess i was just sad that this story was coming to an end...
> 
> Welp, have a good read! See you at the end for my final notes :)
> 
> P.S: I can't read this again anymore, i've read it over so many times already. I did my best to edit it. If there's any mistakes, please let me know!

Jim finally got home. It had been a long day. A long week, to be honest. With Martin and the other two still at large, he couldn't relax, but he needed some rest. Last time he had refused to sleep for two days he had felt like he'd been slowly losing his mind and both his mental faculties and physical abilities were affected.

Lee was still in the hospital, but luckily they were going to let her go home the next day. Barbara Lee was still staying at Barbara's place, but he was hoping he'd get to see her soon.

Things weren't exactly going his way, but at least he had made some progress, and both his wife and daughter were okay and safe. He could at least be happy about that.

He took off his coat and hanged it at the entrance, intentioned to get straight to his bed, no interruptions.

He heard a noise and he froze. His heart sped up and his eyes went wide. He hadn't turned the light on yet, he didn't need to, he knew his house well enough to navigate it even in the dark, but now he wished he had. He slowly reached for his gun and he started to turn around, but before he could turn all hundred-eighty degrees, someone jumped on his back, getting his neck in a hold, and pulling him backwards.

Jim tightened his grip on the gun, he took it out of its holster and tried to hit the attacker in the face with it. He succeeded, judging by the sound, but they still didn't give up and tightened their grip. Jim begun to struggle against the other body and he hit them however he could, elbowing and punching them in the torso.

He could hear their heavy breath, but despite the panting, they still didn't give up, so Jim resorted to throwing his head back and hitting them as hard as he could. That finally worked and the attacker let go for a moment, giving Jim the time to turn around and run to turn the light on, gun always pointed at them.

He wasn't that shocked when the light illuminated Martin, standing in the middle of his living-room, glaring at him.

«Martin... stop now. This is pointless.»

Martin didn't seem to agree and he ran up to him, ready to punch him in the face. He reached Jim before he could do anything. Jim blocked the blow, but Martin started punching him in the stomach. Jim hit him across the face, making him stumble, but he still didn't give up. Bending over from the pain, Martin charged at him and pushed him backwards, slamming his back against the wall, making him grunt in pain. Jim punched Martin's back repeatedly, trying to get him to let go of him, then hit him in the stomach with his knee and used the window that gave him to push him away from himself.

The two men glared at each other, trying to predict the other's next move. In the scuffle, Jim had lost his gun. He tried to eye it inconspicuously, hoping Martin wouldn't realize that it was closer to him than to Jim. But Martin noticed, and Jim realized this. Both men rushed to get to the gun, but Martin beat Jim to it and immediately clocked it and aimed. Jim froze and raised his hands. They were standing close enough that a bullet from that distance would be unlikely to miss, but not close enough that Jim could reasonably think to be able to disarm him in time.

Jim was just forced to stop, stay still, and wait for Martin's next move.

Jim's eyes shifted from Martin to behind him, then quickly back on him. He didn't have many moves left, but luckily for him, he had noticed something that Martin still hadn't.

Next thing they knew, Martin was hit in the head with a heavy decorative vase, and he dropped to the floor, gun still in his hand. Barbara was standing there holding the vase, looking down at Martin with a quick smirk, before putting the vase down and walking up to Jim.

«Are you okay?»

Jim nodded and quickly went to retrieve his gun.

«I got lucky you showed up.»

«Yes, well. I figured you'd be in danger. Not thanks to you, by the way.»

Barbara made a face with one raised eyebrow. Jim nodded, huffed out a short laugh and patted her on the shoulder.

«Yeah... sorry. I'll let you in on the details next time.»

Barbara scoffed, half amused, already ready to forgive.

«“Next time”? Let's not make this a thing, okay?»

They smiled at each other, and looked down at an unconscious Martin.

Jim relaxed, but the he frowned.

 

Jim, Harvey by his side, walked into the interrogation room. Martin, hands cuffed to the table, glared at them.

Jim and Harvey shared a look, then they approached the table and sat down.

«We already know everything is connected. We've figured out all of your plan.»

«You got no moves left, kid.» Harvey helpfully interjected.

«We know you've been working with Nygma and Cobblepot. We know you worked with Tetch. We know what you were trying to do, but you failed.»

Martin flashed a quick smirk, then leaned forward.

«Did I?» he signed.

«You wanted my family to hate me, but guess what. They don't.»

«What about little Barbara? Is she still afraid of her dad?»

Jim struggled not to grimace and maintained a straight face.

«They know it was all you, and they blame _you_. As they should.» Jim hissed.

Martin leaned back with an inscrutable expression. Jim had to give it to him, if there was one thing the man excelled at, it was a poker face.

«Look. We only need you to tell us where Edward and Oswald are. You are going to jail anyway, but-»

Martin interrupted, starting to sign quickly, despite the restriction.

«But, what? You go easy on me if I betray my family? I won't give you my fathers, Jim. Push all you want, you'll get nothing from me.»

Harvey wasn't as fluent as Jim, so he wasn't sure he had caught all of that right, and he shot Jim an interrogative look. From Jim's expression it was clear that the result wasn't positive. Harvey sighed.

«Give us a minute alone.»

Jim's voice sounded harsh and cold.

Harvey hesitated.

«Jim...»

«Now, Harvey.»

«Jim, don't do anything stupid.»

Jim looked at him and Harvey understood that look. It was one that meant Harvey couldn't dissuade him, and so he didn't try. He stood up and walked out of the room.

Martin frowned ever so slightly. It's not that he hand't been expecting this, but he was at least a tiny bit concerned about his own safety.

Jim shot Martin a glare that could freeze blood, but then, to Martin's surprise, his face softened, and he sighed, looking rather defeated.

Martin fought his instinct to raise his eyebrows.

«Look... I understand. I took your family from you, you wanted to do the same to me. I have kept you from the men you call your fathers, now you want to keep me from my daughter. But she is just an innocent child. She didn't deserve to be involved in this.»

Martin fought the surprise and snapped back.

«Was I not an innocent child too?!»

«Yes. That's why I wanted a better life for you. Things didn't go as I hoped, and _I'm sorry_. I was just doing what felt right.»

When Jim said the word “sorry”, Martin felt the world slow down and his hear speed up. He wasn't happy, or thankful, not even touched. He was just angry.

«A bit too late for apologies, and a weak one too, Jim. You need to pay for what you did. You kept me from the only people who loved me-»

«Others tried to, Martin! You pushed them all away. What about those families who tried to adopt you? Did they deserve what they got?»

Martin frowned. It was becoming harder to keep his emotions at bay.

«They were nobody. They meant nothing to me. I already had a family, and you took it from me! I didn't need a new one.»

Jim straightened his back. He was trying to appear collected and unaffected by Martin's words, but with every repetition of that accusation, Jim felt a little bit more like Martin was still hitting him in the gut.

«I know. I know that's how you feel, but you tried to kill me. You threatened my family. All the damage you've done-- No matter what you blame me for, it doesn't justify your actions.»

Martin huffed through his nose in what had to be badly concealed rage. Jim continued.

«I still have a job to do, and Edward and Oswald are going to be brought to justice for their crimes, whether you help me or not.»

«I will never help you! Arrest me if you want, but I won't let you separate them again. _Fuck you, Jim._ »

Jim leaned back and sighed. He had expected this kind of response, still, it didn't make things any easier. He would have to find a way to flush them out of their hidy-hole.

Jim glanced up at Martin, getting an idea. Actually, maybe Martin would turn out to be helpful, after all.

Despite his attitude, and even if against his will.

 

«Why isn't he back yet? He should have been here by now.»

Oswald wouldn't stop pacing up and down the room. Edward had to wonder how his leg didn't hurt with all that unnecessary walking he insisted on doing. He would have been lying if he'd said that his constant moving wasn't stressing him out.

«We have to have faith and wait.»

Oswald ignored him.

«We should have Jim in our hands at this point. Martin should be here. Ed, do you think something happened to him?»

Edward gave up and he stood up from his armchair and walked over to Oswald. The shorter man was looking up at him with wide eyes with so much worry and hope in them, it hurt Ed to consider the possibility that he might have been right. But he was a man of reason, and if he had to be honest, logic told him Martin had no reason to be that late. He hadn't even warned them. The odds of him having run into some kind of problem were pretty high. Still, he didn't want to further stress out his husband, who looked more and more like he was going to give himself an aneurysm any minute.

«It's going to be fine. We are going to go look for him, okay?» he tried to sound reassuring and he saw a little hopeful smile form on Oswald's lips. He smiled back.

Then, one of their men bursted through the door, catching both of their attentions and they looked at him expectantly, not hiding a certain dose of annoyance for being interrupted so rudely by one of their underlings.

«What?» Oswald blurted out when the man didn't speak.

«The news, Mr Cobblepot! I think you should turn on the tv.»

Edward stared at the man. Oswald frowned and scoffed, but he went to fetch the remote and he turned on the tv on the news channel.

His eyes went wide the moment he set them on the screen.

“Criminal mastermind arrested – man behind kidnapping and robberies brought to justice” read the headline, and a reporter was standing in front of the GCPD, talking about the situation.

The camera panned to the entrance of the precinct, and there were standing Martin, and next to him, Jim Gordon, looking awfully smug about all of this.

Oswald bared his teeth at the sight of the man he hated holding his precious boy. He huffed and screamed in frustration and he looked like he was so angry that he didn't know what to do with himself, then he threw the remote at the tv, which cracked the screen before bouncing off and onto the floor.

Edward's lips were pressed in a straight line. His teeth gnashing, jaw clenched tight, as he watched the scene. He wasn't pleased either.

«They have our son!» Oswald turned around to face him.

«I know.»

Ed sounded cold and calculating, the way he sounded when he was overtook by anger.

«We have to go save him!» Oswald walked up to him, grabbing both of his shoulders with his hands.

«It's a trap, you know that, right?»

Oswald pulled away and frowned slightly, trying to identify Ed's intentions.

«Yes, of course I know. But what the fuck else are we supposed to do!?»

Ed nodded ever so slightly.

«Good. Just making sure you know what we are walking into.»

From his words, Oswald understood that Edward agreed with him. He let his shoulders relax and he smiled at his husband, before getting serious again.

They shared a look charged with agreement and determination.

Nobody could get their hands on their son and think they could get away with it.

Especially not Jim Gordon.

 

Barbara walked into her apartment, and she was surprised to find the light was still on. She walked to the living-room with a certain dose of apprehension, until she saw Barbara Lee sitting on the couch, watching tv.

«What are you doing up at this hour?» she asked, putting her hands on her hips.

Barbara Lee took the remote and turned the tv off.

«I was waiting for you. Is dad okay?»

Barbara could hear the concern in her daughter's voice, and she went to sit next to her, taking her hands in hers.

«Of course he is okay. What makes you think he's not?»

Barbara Lee made a face at her.

«I'm not stupid, I saw you looked worried about him.»

«Oh, honey...»

Barbara realized her daughter had stayed up all that time worrying about her dad, and it was really sweet, but it also made her sad, and she felt bad that she had let her sense something was wrong. She would have never wanted her kid to have to worry about anything, but she guessed that if she was old enough to understand certain things, she was old enough to have a conversation about them. She decided she wasn't going to lie to her anymore, and if she would ask, she would give her honest answers.

«Martin tried to hurt your dad, but we stopped him. Now he is with the police.»

«Why did he do that?» Barbara Lee looked hurt by that revelation. It pained Barbara to have to tell her, but she had to know.

«He has been lying to us all. He is a criminal and he only pretended to be our friend so he could hurt Jim.»

She saw her daughter frown and look away. She decided to give her a moment to process this and grieve. She knew she liked that young man and she thought he was her friend. It's always a tough lesson to learn, the fact that you can't trust everybody. A lesson she wished her daughter didn't have to learn, but better sooner than later, she thought.

«I want to go see dad.»

Barbara blinked helplessly at her for a moment.

«Honey, I don't think... It's late. You should be asleep. Your dad is working right now, but tomorrow we-»

«I want to see him now. I have to tell him I'm sorry.»

Barbara was surprised to hear that.

«Sorry about what?»

Barbara Lee looked sheepish now, avoiding her gaze.

«You said he was sad that I got scared... I refused to see him all day, even if I knew it wasn't his fault. It's not fair, I need to tell him I'm sorry.»

Barbara's heart sunk at that confession. She smiled and nodded.

«Okay. I understand. But just this one time, because it's an emergency, okay? Don't think this means you'll always get a pass to stay up late.»

Barbara Lee's face lit up with a large smile.

 

Harvey shot Jim a look to tell him to turn around, and when he did he was beyond surprised to see his little girl stroll into the GCPD that late at night, accompanied by her mom quickly walking behind her to keep up.

Jim scowled at Barbara, implicitly asking her what they hell they were doing there.

«She wanted to see you and wouldn't take “no” for an answer.»

Barbara rolled her eyes, feigning annoyance.

«Oh.» was all Jim was able to say as his daughter ran to him and hugged him tightly.

He was about to ask her if everything was alright, maybe to scold her for being up at that hour, but everything else paled in comparison to the fact that she had just hugged him. The relief Jim felt couldn't even be described in words, and in fact, it took him a whole minute to find any words to say, and he resorted to just hugging her back, enjoying this unexpected moment.

«I'm sorry.»

When the silence between them was broken, Jim was surprised that Barbara Lee was the one to speak first, and her words didn't even make sense to him.

«What for?»

She looked like she was bracing herself and taking a deep breath before explaining.

«I was mean to you for no reason. Mom explained everything, I'm sorry I didn't tell you immediately: I'm not mad at you, I know you didn't mean to hurt Lee.»

Jim kneeled down to be face to face with her and smiled warmly at her.

«Thank you. Still, there was no need to rush in here at this hour, but I'm happy you are fine.»

She rolled her eyes at her dad's reproach, which should have been seen as a lack or respect for a parental figure, probably, but it just made Jim smile. It was good to see his kid was back to being herself.

«Mom said... Martin did all of the bad things that happened.»

She said after a moment. Jim went back to looking serious. It wasn't an easy subject, but he guessed his daughter deserved to know the truth as well. He stood up and sighed.

«Yeah... he pretended to be someone he wasn't just so he could get close to me enough to hurt me. He wanted you to hate me.»

«Well, but I don't! His plan didn't work!» Barbara Lee was quick to assure him. This made him smile again. He was so tired, but this felt like a breath of fresh air.

«But why did he do this? Why does he hate you so much, dad?»

Now, that was a good question to ask, and not a very good one to have to answer. Jim knew what he had done to cause such deep resentment, but not matter how much he wanted to convince himself that he had done the right thing, he couldn't find the right words to not make it sound again like he was the bad guy in this story.

«Well, you see... a long time ago, he-»

He wasn't sure what he was going to say when he begun that sentence, but then it didn't matter, because he didn't get the time to finish it anyway. The interruption was sudden and loud and hard to ignore.

Many ducked, hearing the gunshots resonate through the air, but luckily they were all aimed at the ceiling. Barbara Lee screamed and ran to hide behind Jim's back.

Jim looked towards the entrance and there stood Oswald, like he had many times before, this time looking furious, even though he was smiling, there was rage poorly concealed behind it. His gun was still aimed at the ceiling.

When he was sure he had everyone's attention, and by then he surely had it, he begun to talk.

In the meantime, in walked at least a dozen lowlives, all armed to the teeth, and along with them, right behind Oswald, was Edward, standing proud, in his green suit and bowler hat.

He stood close to Oswald, while he spoke.

«Alright, everybody, here's the deal. Give us Martin and nobody has to get hurt. But if you refuse...» he paused, clocking his gun, «Trust me, I won't hesitate to hurt somebody.»

When he said that, he locked eyes with Jim.

Barbara noticed this. It was clear that Jim would be an obvious target, so she didn't feel like her daughter would be safe, staying so close to him. She didn't think Oswald would ever voluntarily shoot a child, but she couldn't say the same for everyone else, and even if that were true, a stray bullet could still hit her, and that thought terrified her. So, she quickly walked behind Jim and grabbed Barbara Lee by her arm, pulling her away. She exchanged a quick look with Jim just to let each other know that they both agreed this was the best course of action, then Jim's attention went back on Oswald.

This was the first time they got to see each other since that night at the pier. Just like last time, Oswald had a gun pointed at him, but unlike last time, he had no body of water to dive into for an easy escape. Not only that, but this time they weren't alone, and way more lives were at stake. This made Jim definitely more nervous.

«I won't be handing a known criminal to you, Oswald. Stand down now.»

Oswald's lips took an oblique angle, he didn't look pleased with Jim's response, but he didn't look surprised either.

«Boys...» he said, gesturing to his underlings, and they followed his orders and begun shooting at the other officers.

Many were already hiding before, but now everyone was taking cover behind or under desks. Even Jim ducked, but nobody was shooting at him directly yet. Oswald and Edward's eyes were still on him, and Oswald's gun was still aimed at him too.

Then, bullets started coming from both sides, as many officers started shooting back too, and Oswald was forced to lower his gun. He looked surprised, but before he could do anything, Ed had grabbed him and pulled him away, so they could both get to cover too.

Oswald and Ed both started shooting back. Not at Jim directly, not at first, more like in his general direction. Jim had no doubt that Oswald wouldn't hesitate to kill him, given the chance.

It was true that they had history and they had been allied on multiple occasions, and maybe Oswald had looked like was hesitating on that night too, which was what had given Jim the time to turn around and jump into the water, but right now, Jim wasn't so sure anymore.

There was something different this time. He was forced to consider that maybe Oswald took his fatherly duties more seriously than he would have imagined, and he really would have been willing to kill many people, to kill him, just to get to Martin. Jim had a brief moment of clarity where he had to admit to himself he couldn't blame him. He couldn't condone his methods, but he understood his reasons. He wouldn't have let anybody get in between him and his daughter either, which was why he had to stop all of this. His daughter's life was in danger too right now.

Speaking of his daughter, she and Barbara had managed to sneak away from the main fight, and had gone to hide into the morgue. Not the happiest place to be, especially for a child, but at least they were safe in there. It was clean and quiet. The sounds of the bullets came in muffled through the wall. Barbara Lee made herself closer to her mom, clinging onto her for reassurance and safety, while they hid behind the metal table.

«Stop shooting! Stand down!»

Jim shouted at the criminals, his voice barely audible over the sound of the gunshots, but to no avail.

«Give me my boy back, then we'll talk about it!» Oswald shouted back.

«I can't let him go, he is a criminal! He has to face judgement and then punishment for his crimes. And so will you!»

Edward laughed at those words.

«All this time you haven't even been able to find us, you had to make us come to you. You haven't been aging well, lost some of your shine!» he mocked him.

Oswald grinned at his husband's words and laughed along.

Jim huffed and looked around. The situation wasn't good. He looked at the officers around him. Nobody had gotten seriously hurt, not yet, but it was only a matter of time before something major could happen, and he couldn't let his colleagues get hurt because of something he had started.

He took a decision and he slowly stood up.

«What the hell are you doing!? Get back down!» Harvey shouted at him from his hiding spot, but Jim was relentless. He stared down at Oswald who had noticed him and had poked his head out to study his moves.

Jim knew he had Oswald's attention, so he slowly put his gun down on the desk before him, and he raised his hands.

«I'll go with you if you leave now. Do with me what you want, but nobody else gets hurt.»

Oswald raised one hand, and the shooting from their part ceased momentarily.

«That does sound tempting, Jim, more than you can imagine, but I'm afraid we cannot leave without our son!»

Oswald feigned sounding apologetic, but he knew what he wanted and he wouldn't leave without it, and he certainly wasn't sorry at all.

Jim lowered his hands and he glanced behind himself. He locked eyes with Alvarez, who was crouching behind a desk not too far from there. Jim nodded in the direction of the interrogation room, and the officer immediately knew what he meant. He didn't look too happy about the order, but he complied, sneaking into that room.

Jim felt Harvey's eyes on the back of his neck and he turned to look at him. Harvey raised his eyebrows at him and Jim frowned in response. The silent communication was effective, and it was clear to both of them that they were out of options and this might as well be their last and only chance to get out of this mess.

After a moment, Alvarez opened the door and Martin walked out. Oswald and Edward both stood up, lowering their guns and smiling in relief mixed with lingering disbelief at the sight of their son unharmed. Still, there were many guns ready to shoot and many bullets flying around, and Martin was unarmed and standing on the other side of the room. Oswald frowned, concerned for his son's safety, but before Martin could start walking towards them, something else happened. They heard a swishing sound coming from the ceiling.

Martin was walking past Jim in that moment, and they exchanged a resentful look, then both looked up, searching for the origin of that noise, and so did Oswald and Edward, who looked around and then at each other, silently asking if the other knew what the hell was going on, and then, a black shape flew down, landing behind them.

They barely had the time to react, or realize what was going on, and Batman had already disarmed them both with a few expert moves.

Oswald ducked out of the way, and Edward still found himself caught in the struggle for his gun, which ended up flying out of his hand anyway.

Jim didn't have the time to feel grateful that the mysterious vigilante had showed up, but he did have enough time to catch on on what was happening and react, by taking his gun from the desk and aiming at Oswald. He could shoot him in the leg and impair him, it had worked before.

But before he could do that, Martin realized what he was doing and launched himself at him, and so they begun a fight for Jim's gun, with Martin trying to take it from him and disrupt Jim's attempt to shoot his father, and Jim trying to keep hold of his weapon and get the other man off himself. Unfortunately for Jim, Martin managed to get a hold of his wrist and forced him to drop the gun. Before Martin could try to reach it, Jim charged at him and their struggled continued, turning into a good old fashioned fist fight, no weapons involved.

In the meantime, the shooting had begun again from both sides, everybody confused by the presence of the black-caped stranger, but the officers grateful nonetheless to see that guy seemed to be on their side.

Oswald saw Edward being beaten and he ran at Batman, jumping on his back and hitting him on his head and shoulders, trying to get him to let Edward be, but the vigilante quickly got him to drop off his back and he was able to block attacks from both men at once, managing to land quite a number of blows as well.

Martin, younger and thus stronger and more agile, was able to overpower Jim and he managed to get his neck in a hold once again, and he squeezed and pulled back, strangling Jim, despite his efforts to get himself free.

Harvey was trapped too far away to intervene, a shower of bullets in between them preventing him from running to Jim's rescue.

«Jim!» he shouted helplessly.

Batman heard that and he turned toward the voice, seeing Jim's situation. Quickly, he pulled out what looked like a small bat-shaped blade and he managed to throw it, in between dodging attacks from both Oswald and Ed, and continuing to fight them off.

The blade hit Martin in the shoulder, the unexpected pain getting him to let go of Jim.

Oswald and Edward noticed this, and both men felt a rush of worry and they turned to watch their son stumble, and they called out for him, but Batman got in their way and diverted their attention once again.

Barbara heard the noise and the shouts coming from the other room and decided she was done sitting there and cowering in fear. She reassured her daughter that everything would be alright, and made her promise to stay put, then she sneaked out of the room, and back into that mess.

Barbara Lee found herself alone, and she hugged her own knees while she watcher her mom exit the room.

Barbara found a gun on the ground and quickly walked up to it to pick it up, then she stood up and aimed at Martin, but to her extreme disappointment, the gun turned out to be empty. She frowned and ducked again, sneaking along the line of desks until she was close enough to the scuffle.

Martin was about to charge at Jim again, but Barbara was quick enough, sneaking up behind him, and hit him in the back of the head with the grip of the gun. Martin stumbled forward, and Jim pushed him aside. He and Barbara exchanged a look, communicating gratitude from him and smug satisfaction from her. This was the second time she'd snuck behind Martin and hit him in the head on the same night. She had to wonder if she was starting to make an habit of this.

Oswald got tired of fighting that caped bastard.

«Shoot him! Aim at him, kill him!» he shouted at his men, angrily pointing his finger at the vigilante.

Batman found himself suddenly with every gun aimed at him, shooting mercilessly. Luckily, it looked like his suit was bullet proof, but he still had to try to avoid most of them and get out of the way, so he was forced to let Oswald and Edward be, for the time being.

Ed shot Oswald a proud and satisfied look and Oswald smiled back at him, and ran to him, grabbing onto Ed'a arm, then turning to scan the room and assess the situation.

Both their sets of eyes fell on Martin, who looked beaten up and even if he was still standing, they could tell he was struggling, especially since he was bleeding from his wound on his shoulder. They watched him reach for the blade with difficulty and pull it out, dropping it to the floor. Worry took a grip on Oswald's heart, and without even thinking about it, he rushed to his son's side, followed by Edward.

Edward pointed his gun at Barbara, forcing her to stop and take a step back and away from Jim.

Oswald pointed his gun at Jim, instead, while Martin managed to get behind them for cover.

«Are you alright?»

Ed asked and Martin nodded, holding his aching shoulder with his opposite hand. He didn't look like he was alright at all.

«Are you happy, Jim? My son could have died!» Oswald yelled. The look on his face was one of pure rage.

«I'm not happy. But this isn't my fault. Martin would have been fine if you hadn't done come here. He would be in jail where he belongs, but unharmed. If you hadn't done any of this, no one would have been hurt.»

Oswald didn't seem to like Jim's response. He looked furious at the insinuation that it was somehow _his_ fault of his son had gotten hurt.

«Shut the fuck up, Jim! This is all your fault! _We_ , are _heroes_. We fought for this city and all the thanks we got, from you, from this city, was to get our lives ruined! You... you crashed our wedding, for fuck's sake!»

Jim didn't know what to say to that. Edward watched his husband rant and gesticulate with his gun pointed at Jim's gut, and he couldn't help but feel proud. He agreed with everything Oswald was saying and now they were finally going to get the revenge they deserved.

«Martin was just a child. A child! And you took him away from the only people who could understand him and love him for who he is. You forced him to grow up away from _us_. Do you have any idea, Jim, what it's like to have to spend _ten whole years_ separated from the people you love most in the world?»

Jim understood. He didn't agree with their methods, but he understood their feelings. He finally got it now. He was wrong. He thought he had been doing the right thing, but he wasn't.

«I'm sorry. I truly am.»

Oswald's eyes went wide at Jim's words. Edward scoffed and laughed briefly.

«Yeah... no, that won't do.»

He didn't sound like he believed that Jim meant those words, but he genuinely did. Barbara was surprised to see Jim drop his shoulders and she realized he looked resigned.

«I can't take back what I did, but please. Let me try to fix this.»

This time it was Oswald's turn to scoff. He couldn't imagine how Jim could ever do that. “Fix this”, as if this was just some boo-boo that could be kissed better. This was a deep wound that had never fully healed. A scar that still itched and stung and occasionally bled.

«I will talk to the mayor, I will talk to whoever I need to talk to. I will get your past crimes pardoned, I'll make sure you get the highest public honor they can give you for your actions of then years go. You won't be locked up, Ed won't have to see the inside of Arkham again. But you need to let me get Martin. He has to go to jail for everything he did. In a few years he will be out and you will be together again. Please.»

Oswald and Edward listened carefully to Jim's speech. He waited nervously for a response.

«Nah, I'm sorry. That can't happen. I won't let you take my son.» Oswald replied.

«Nice sentiment, but Oswald is right.» Ed added.

Jim took took a deep breath. He should have expected this kind of response, and yet he was still disappointed.

«Then there's nothing I can do for you.»

Oswald smiled. A large, bitter smile.

«Except that there is. You can die.»

Edward laughed at that remark, immensely pleased with this outcome and with Oswald's appropriately dramatic response.

«Jim!» Barbara shouted, worried that they were going to shoot him any moment now.

Batman noticed what was going on from the other side of the room and he tried as quickly as possible to get rid of as many of Penguin's goons as possible, but before he, or anybody, else, could do anything, to everyone's surprise, suddenly Barbara Lee was standing in between Jim and Oswald's gun with her arms outstretched at her sides, staring Oswald down. She had sneaked out of the morgue before anyone could notice. Oswald swallowed, realizing the gravity of the situation. He was reminded of one time, ten years ago, when he had also been pointing his gun at this child, except back then she had been a baby still in her mother's belly, and he had been scolded for doing so by everyone, even by Edward. Things hadn't changed. He still wasn't the type of man to aim a gun at an innocent child, and so he adjusted the aim higher so he could be sure not to hurt her even by accident, and he aimed at Jim's head instead.

Despite his efforts to appear unaffected, he was clearly shocked by this development, and such emotion was evident on Edward's face as well.

«What are you doing? Go back and hide, now!» Jim scolded his daughter.

She refused, even when he tried to grab her shoulders and pull her away. Her feet were well set onto the ground and she wouldn't budge. She continued staring down at Oswald, her frown deepening, and she quickly glanced at Martin too, who was still hiding behind his father's back. Their eyes met briefly, and Martin felt some kind of pride, oddly enough, in seeing such a young child stand up for her family. Maybe he was ashamed that she was doing what he hadn't been able to do when he had been the same age as her, when they had come to take his family away. He could admire this child's tenacity, he had to give her that. Her actions were foolish, nonetheless.

Barbara, tears filling up her eyes, tried to step closer to get to her daughter, but Ed shook himself out of the stupor and with a light movement of his hand he reminded her of the presence of the gun still pointed at her. No matter the oddity of the situation, nothing changed the fact that Edward couldn't let her get any closer to Jim.

«Please...» her tone touched Edward. He wasn't entirely heartless, but he still couldn't let her have her way.

In the meantime, the shooting had stopped and the room had mostly fell into silence. Even the huffs and grunts from the gang members had died down, now that Batman had incapacitated even the last one of them. Now, he was ready to rush to the rescue, but he hesitated, when he noticed something.

Martin reached from behind Oswald's shoulder and placed a hand on his arm, to let him know to lower the gun.

Oswald was surprised by that gesture, but maybe because he was already having doubts, he followed his son's directions.

Barbara Lee glared at Martin, even while he did this. He could understand why. He understood her anger, he had felt it too. This was why he wouldn't let the cycle be repeated. No child would be separated from their parents, not today, not under his watch. Make no mistakes, he hadn't forgiven Jim and he might never get to that point, but when faced with the fury of a tiny innocent child, he was overcome with emotions stronger than his will and than his thirst for revenge. There had to be another way to get justice.

Martin stepped in front of Oswald, still stumbling a bit – he was getting weak from the pain, and he had been bleeding for a while too at this point – and he signed at Jim.

«Let them go.»

Oswald and Edward were frozen, trying to understand their son's true intentions, but they became clear soon enough, when Jim, after hesitating for a moment, nodded. Edward lowered his gun too.

Barbara, finally free, immediately ran to her kid and hugged her as hard as she could manage. Jim kneeled down and wrapped his arms around both of them, before glancing up and meeting Martin's eyes for a brief instant. Somehow, in some way, they reached some kind of understanding in that moment.

Oswald looked at that scene and he couldn't help but feel like, despite how robbed of his rightful revenge he felt, this was the right thing that should happen right now. He reached for Martin's good shoulder and his son turned to him, smiling weakly. Oswald understood that his son was willing to give himself up to the police in order to save them. He shook his head imperceptibly, overtaken with fear and disbelief.

Then, sensing a presence behind them, Oswald and Ed turned around only to find that Batman was stinging menacingly right behind them. They instinctively took a defensive stance, and they were right to do so, but then, Jim's voice resonated loud in the quiet room.

«No! Let them go.»

Batman froze in surprise at that, not sure if it had sounded more like an order or a plead. Oswald froze too, waiting and trying to understand what was happening.

Martin turned to Jim to look at his face, looking puzzled for a moment until he could decipher his expression, but then, they shared a look of mutual understanding.

«Commissioner Gordon...» Bruce's voice was deep and threatening, but it betrayed his confusion. It almost sounded like a warning. He finally understood what Jim meant to do, and he wasn't sure this was the right choice.

«I have to make this right.» was all Jim said, but it was enough to make him understand. Bruce had known this man for long enough and he decided to trust him on this, against his better judgement.

There would be other chances for this, but for now, everyone here had suffered enough, and they all, criminals included, should be able to go home with their families and recover.

Batman just stared at Jim. It was hard to tell behind his disguise, but he still looked mildly upset. Although, he reasoned, this was and had always been Gotham, the city he loved and that he'd sworn to protect. He understood all too well the complexities of it, so he finally agreed. He would let go, just for tonight.

The tall caped man moved aside. Oswald, Ed and Martin all hesitated, sharing looks with each other, trying to understand the situations and trying to give each other the courage to move.

Then, fearing somebody would change their minds, they quickly started scuttling away, both parents helping Martin keeping up since he was now weaker than ever.

It had been a long day, they were all exhausted and they hadn't gotten the revenge they were hoping for, but at least they had gotten their son back.

Right as they walked past him, Edward met Batman's dark eyes. It was just a quick glance, but Ed thought he caught something in there. For the first time, he actually saw him as a person, instead of a spooky dark shadow, or a freak in a costume.

They had to keep moving fast – first of all to get the hell out of the GCPD, and secondly to go get Martin the medical attention he needed – but in that moment Edward realized something.

He wouldn't be able to rest until he had found out who the hell that guy truly was... but that too, along with the rest of his unfinished business, would have to be a problem for another day.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had many thought about this, and some i have already expressed, but i feel like many others have just been lost and i will never find them again. Since these are my final thoughts on this fic, i will try to get everything off my chest!
> 
> I actually like this story a lot! I'm very proud, and it was so much fun to write. It's not the best story ever written, like, by any stretch, but also like... i wrote it, man. I did it. I had an idea and i turned it into a multi-chapter fanfiction. Was it a good idea? Well, you are the judge of that, i guess, all i can say it that i'm satisfied with how it turned out.
> 
> I said it was going to be six chapters and that i would update quickly, and i did, so that's something.
> 
> It was fun because i got to play with slightly different tools that in my previous fics. I've never written a post-canon fic before, i got to write Oswald and Ed as married couple, i straight up made up adult Martin's entire personality, i threw Batman in there just because, i had to fricking write in rhyme because i hate myself i guess, and just, i had no idea what i was doing... but i did it, so there. Damn.
> 
> Also, a note about the ending 'cos i don't know what your opinion is, but i gotta share my thoughts, okay, here we go: i contemplated having this end... like, really badly. I even had this other idea (which would have made for a super angsty ending) where Martin wasn't the person Oswald and Ed thought, and it turned out that he had no problem trying to kill a child, so they had to turn on him, but then, no, i just couldn't. Too sad. This seemed like the right conclusion. Like, everything kind of came full circle and went back to the status quo, in a way, but what changed is the characters' feelings. Like, Jim learned his lesson, for one thing.
> 
> This isn't perfect, like, for sure, and i'm certain i will read this again a while after posting this last chapter and i will instantly regret all of my decisions but. Like. That's just part of the process at this point, man... BUT!! But i hope you appreciate the effort i put into it. And i like how i was able to construct a story that had some kind of plot? Twists? How?? I've complained about this before, but the bad thing about writing extremely clever characters is that if you are a dumbass irl it's kinda hard to make them actually sound as clever as they are supposed to be jkfkjgfkgj
> 
> Okay i think i'm done. Thanks for reading if you've gotten to this point :))


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